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COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV 




"They Have Been Made to Feel That Their 
Wishes Are Dominant, Until They Have Come to 
THE Consciousness of Ownership." — Introduction, 2d 
page, Ime 14, 



'' THEIR Manner Was, THEY Owned it All. 

4th letter, 48th page^ 12th line. 



{Frontis. Stephen Strong.) 



The Persecution of 
^ Stephen Strong S^ 

By. 



•••«^ jr ••• 



Rev. C. E. BABCOCK, Ph.D. 



9o!^^)^^ 3)^^ ^)^^ "^^^ 




BROADWAY PUBLISHING CO. 
835 Broadway^ New York 






LIBRARY of C0WGS1ESS.I ^ ^Y^\\^ 
Two C'joie'i Received j <^ 

DEC 19 1908 

Copirfi^rit i:/itry 
CUSS ex XXc, j^o: 

■^ V ^4 on . 

COPY d. ^ 



Copyright. 1908. 

BY 

Rev. C. E. BABCOCK 



All risrhts reserved. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The secular and religious press of to-day is 
filled with bold criticisms on the Church, in 
which it is unhesitatingly stated that the 
Church has lost its power ; that religious affairs 
are fast being relegated to the background. A 
few years ago G. Campbell Morgan retired 
from America to his native England, declaring 
that the true spirit of religion was wanting in 
America. The religious press in commenting 
upon his words tried to explain their meaning 
so that his heroic truth might not have so keen 
an edge to cut its way, yet to this day it stands 
substantiated and the unwelcome truth sits at 
our firesides, stands in our pulpits, and occu- 
pies our pews. That which was preached and 
accepted a quarter of a century ago as to the 
dividing line between the church and the world 
is now quite generally ignored, and that which 
was declared to be unchristian and worldly is 
now quite generally accepted by the church- 



^ ^ 



ii Introduction 

going public. The test of church prosperity 
seems to be based upon large congregations and 
plenty of money to foot the bills. Hence there 
arises the question, who shall occupy the pul- 
pits? Or, perhaps, it is better stated to say 
that the superficial public must be consulted 
and must dictate not only who the preacher 
shall be, but what the preaching shall be, and 
while they are about it, they do not fail to fix 
the length of the sermon and woe be to the 
preacher who dares to add five minutes "to his 
stature" beyond their specified limit. Their 
method of reasoning seems proper for them, 
since they have been made to feel that their 
wishes are dominant until they have come to 
the consciousness of ownership. And are they 
not justified in this, since, if their feelings are 
not consulted they will be conspicuous by their 
absence and ministers and deacons will be left 
with the problem of empty pews to solve. They 
have forgotten that the church is a divine insti- 
tution and that the true minister is divinely 
called. Think of Moses consulting the people 
as to whether they would accept the ten com- 
mandments, or still worse asking them to dic- 
tate the subject matter or how long they should 



Introduction iii 

be. True, the people had much to do with the 
commandments, for their unfaithfulness 
caused him to cast down the tables of stone in 
the utter discouragement of the Law Giver 
when he saw the golden calf. But whoever 
heard that that congregation was consulted as 
to who the next preacher should be. I know 
there are notable exceptions to this rule in the 
churches to-day, but quite generally it is to be 
observed that the golden calf has come in, and 
*come to stay. Fine churches, well dressed 
preachers and congregations, and in many in- 
stances well filled houses, seem to be conclusive 
evidence that the Lord has suddenly come to 
his temple and claimed his own right in his 
own sanctuary. But even a superficial ob- 
server may see that he has not thus come. 
Neither is it Biblical that we should look for 
him in that way. God's spiritual bestowments 
follow fixed laws just as truly as do the laws 
of electricity and the courses of the wind. We 
seem to have forgotten that the great future is 
an unknown sea before us. The past we 
know, the future — who can tell? In this 
future lies the destiny of the world. Now 
what is our conception of the churclv of Jesus 



IV Introduction 

Christ? Is it not the ark in which we are to 
navigate these unknown waters? And who 
knows what these are to be only God ? Hence, 
what church committee, minister or congrega- 
tion dares to assume to direct until they have 
been into the secret chamber with God, found 
out his direction, and forsaking self and selfish 
ways waited in His presence until they are 
endued with power from on high? Had this 
been the directing power in the past, results 
would be far different from what they are 
to-day. Nay, the worldly and the unconse- 
crated portion of the outward church have 
made bold to come in and dictate and control, 
until the church has become a great social club ; 
"standing in the holy place, where it ought not 
to stand, let him that readeth understand," ex- 
cluding them who would work, themselves hav- 
ing no true conception of what the work 
should be. Nor do they stop at broken hearts 
who pine away and die over the desolations 
that are wrought in Zion. Having publicly 
committed themselves to gross errors, they set 
up their banners in the name of the church and 
in the face of a public which knows their wick- 
edness, they lead on, crying, "Come with us 



Introduction v 

and we will do you good." Now every sensi- 
ble person knows that it is not in their power 
to do good under these conditions, and for 
them to push on in such an attempt is but to 
involve the whole in difficulties and render it 
absolutely impossible to make any true pro- 
gress. And the startling thing about this en- 
tire matter is, that these usurpers of power and 
privilege in their so-called march of progress 
look back upon their silenced and excluded vic- 
tims charging them with having fallen from 
God, when in reality the ones they malign are 
not only the hope of the church but the salt of 
the earth. How long does it take us to learn 
that things are not always what they seem, and 
again, "it is not all gold that glitters." It is a 
sad comment upon church conditions to-day 
that an untold amount of wrong is covered in 
until the masses in the communities look upon 
it all with mistrust. Leading ministers, and 
in the main good men, look upon these wrongs 
and cry, SILENCE— SILENCE— SILENCE 
or we may do the cause of God incalculable 
harm. And then quote the scripture, "I will 
keep my mouth as with a bridle while the 
wicked is before me." The injured parties are 



VI Introduction" 

labored with by those who are witnesses of tHe 
conditions and express sorrow that an outraged 
heart has had the courage to divulge these do- 
ings to the public ear since it tends to make 
men skeptical towards religious teachings. It 
reminds one of the colored preacher in the 
times of slavery. Thefts were common among 
them and the master suggested to the preacher 
that he discourse upon the sin of stealing. The 
preacher replied, "It would not do, massa, it 
would bring a coldness over de meetin'." In 
regard to present day religion, we say a thou- 
sand times rather let the coldness come than 
to attempt to go forward on the supposition 
that an apparent ignorance of wrong in the 
church excuses the wickedness and leaves an 
open way for the advancement of true piety 
in the earth. Do not for a moment think that 
we are here arguing that God has abandoned 
the earth, or that he could not make mighty 
strides of advance through his chosen church. 
The great heart of the Eternal is most wonder- 
fully kind and is most surely touched with the 
feelings of our infirmities. But what could 
he do with Judas, though loaded down with 
silver, the most weighty on earth, as it was the 



Introduction vii 

price of the Master. Where in God's church 
is room for the betrayer ? Where could Judas 
go but to go out and hang himself? "It were 
better for that man had he never been born." 
Said a layman to a pastor, "I don't care what 
you do, but you must fill the church.'' The 
filling of churches is all right, the desirability 
of large congregations is all right, but let them 
be brought together by holy men and women 
whose hearts are moved by the Holy Ghost. 
But how is it, that, throughout the land more 
pews are empty than are occupied? Is it be- 
cause we are living in a skeptical age ? I think 
not. Men believe in God, the Bible, Eternal 
realities; they believe in a preparedness for 
the great realities that are to come. They look 
into the churches and in too many instances 
men that are bad, positively bad, are in the 
lead. They are guilty of public wrongs and 
injustices and yet they invite you to their 
places of worship and would kneel down by 
your side and in mockery would pray God that 
you may be saved, even as they are. We sin- 
cerely ask what these prayers do to help an 
honest soul pleading to be freed from sin? 
But this i$ not all. With this evident miscon- 



viii Introduction 

ception on the part of the leaders, the general 
thought has come to be taught that church 
attendance and good intentions will fit one for 
the heavenly world. Thinking men sit down 
at home and ponder these things. Multitudes, 
on the whole, conclude to take their chances as 
compared with those who hypocritically make 
long prayers. On the first proposition they are 
right, the second does not follow. They need 
not make their preparation for Eternity in 
church companionship, but they must become 
contrite and meekly bow the heart to the 
Divine Being who alone can forgive sin. What 
a glorious thing it would be if all buyers and 
sellers were cast out of God's temple. But if 
they will persist in their leadership, we must 
march under the banner, more of God and 
less of Ecclesiasticism, more of the inward and 
less of the outward. The correcting of local 
churches and erring individuals is a serious 
problem. The present condition is pfling un- 
deserved wrongs on many a silent sufferer, 
and men who should be Goliaths in strength 
are made weak because the spirit of oppres- 
sion has barred them out and even locked the 
church doors against them. It is time some 



Introduction ix 

one rose up to plead the cause of the needy, 
or rather it is time some one should so clearly 
enunciate the needs of the present hour that 
there may be a general uprising in favor of 
God and the religion of the Cross. The ques- 
tion arises how far the experiences of one in- 
dividual in any given community are applicable 
to the general public? Can the cause of re- 
ligion, justice and righteousness in general be 
promoted by a pointed exposure of wrong do- 
ing on the part of the membership of any one 
church whose time and effort should have been 
spent in better things? The writer of these 
pages is of the opinion that God has been lead- 
ing him in ways which if rightly explained wall 
help to roll back the stone which seems now 
impossible to reix_jve from the grave of hope. 
Harrowing experiences from which he has 
shrunk but could not escape, great wrongs, per- 
secutions and insults exposed, may put honest 
men and women on their guard and make them 
cautious to tread upon ground upon which 
angels would hesitate to enter. Also it will 
show the evil designer that there is an avenue 
of defense to the apparently helpless one. An 
aroused public opinion will rise up and demand 



X Introduction 

that at least in the church, honesty and fair 
play shall hold sway. There must be room for 
devout souls to work for God and when these 
heaven endowed rights are interfered with, 
some one must be wrong. We have chosen 
to make these revelations in the Epistilatory 
form as being a style which comes nearest the 
heart, and in its own spirit makes its own 
pleadings as the story advances. In the hope 
that God will use this effort to His own glory 
in pulling down the strongholds of sin and 
Satan, it is put in your hands to read and de- 
cide. But as you decide, be sure to place your 
decision upon the basis of equity and righteous- 
ness. The following pages will show that the 
writer was assailed by an ignorant unconse- 
crated people who seemed to be entirely in- 
capable of appreciating merit or of opening 
their eyes to the fact that as a local church 
they were in the midst of exceptional prosper- 
ity, due to the untiring and successful efforts 
of a consecrated minister and his wife. It will 
be seen that they entirely ignore earned honors, 
and esteem it a light thing to strip the inde- 
fatigable pastor and his wife, of all honors 
which they had so clearly won. If churches 



Introduction xi 

can^t be honest with ministers, and if ministers 
can't be honest with churches, then let us aban- 
don the whole plan and look for something 
better to take its place. It is an outrage on 
public decency to fall in with the general re- 
mark, that the minister who builds the church 
cannot stay with it. This pit is prepared as 
the grave for the choicest and best that is in 
the church at the present time. Everybody 
knows that the laborer is worthy of his hire, 
and we know, too, that sensible men are not 
going to submit to such an unrighteous princi- 
ple. This position will not stand the test of 
common business. It will be branded as un- 
just and iniquitous. If so in business, how 
much more in the church? As these instances 
increase, the general disgust of the public in- 
creases? Nor does it avail to call an outraged 
public skeptical and unbelieving. It is the so- 
called church that is skeptical and unbelieving. 
Neither does it avail that unworthy ministers 
rise up to take the part of the erring and sinful 
leaders. There can be but one end to all such 
conduct. Hand in hand they are advancing to 
the day when they and all the world shall see 
that the wrath of God is out against them. 



xii Introduction 

Who then shall give the warning cry? The 
writer of these pages would say in answer to 
this question, "Here am I, Lord, send me." 
"If the watchnlan see the sword coming and 
raise not his voice, the sword shall fall, but 
their blood shall be required at his hands." 
Let all parties read and ponder, but remember 
you are warned, there are breakers ahead. 
These letters are addressed to my sainted 
Mother, as in the presence of her memory there 
will be no temptation to express other than the 
ungarnished truth. And, as I hope to meet her 
in the by-and-by, let sincerity guide my pen in 
these startling revelations. Let it be under- 
stood that these letters are written to my 
Mother and in this light they are to be read. 
Otherwise, there will be times when the reader 
will call the writer egotistic. But when you 
realize that we tell Mother all, you will permit 
the writer to lean on her neck and sob out his 
griefs. 



TTie Persecution of Stephen Strong 
FIRST LETTER. 

To My Sainted Mother in Heaven: 
My Di:ar Mother : — 
It is several years since I took my pen to 
write to you. I remember a sad Sabbath even- 
ing in September, 1881, that a telegram 
reached me telling me that you were dead. It 
was just a few months before that, that I gave 
you the last good-bye and you drew me to your 
pillow, saying, ''I suppose God wants you more 
than I do, but that is a good deal.'' It was just 
before the evening preaching, and that night 
as I told the people of the things of God, it 
seemed as though Heaven and earth were very 
near together. I made the lonely journey to 
the old home and saw you like a silent watcher 
about to enter the tomb. Father, children and 
grand-children turned quietly away and each 
again took up the thread of life as best we 



2 ThS P^IRSECUTIOIT 

could. Since then, father, sisters and brothers 
have all followed you, and I am left alone to 
make out the remaining portion of my days. I 
have often wondered if you saw me in my 
labors, and, to tell you the truth, I have been 
lonesome for your prayers. You will bear me 
record, that in the early days of my ministry 
I was very sincere, and gladly gave up worldly 
opportunities that I might join in the good 
fight and win souls to Christ. You will re- 
member, too, how often you were cheered to 
learn that God was using me in this particular. 
You also lived to know and see, that God gave 
me as true and capable a wife as any minister 
of the Gospel need have. I need not tell you 
to-day that she has been true and faithful to 
me and stands out a true light for God with 
the full courage of her conviction. I mention 
this because in the letters I address to you, you 
will have occasion to test her true spirit and see 
that earth does still possess some who dare to 
speak for truth and righteousness, even in the 
midst of trials and persecutions. It fell to our 
lot to have several pastorates. On many fields 
signal success marked our efforts. We were 
not vainglorious, neither were we satisfied to 



01^ Sti:ph^n Strong 3 

reap alone what other men had sown. We had 
sickness, disappointments and troubles, but we 
bore them as best we could and daily looked 
for Divine guidance. One thing, however, was 
a source of constant sorrow to us. We could 
but see that designing men and women both in 
the ministry and out of it were unscrupulous in 
their plans to bring about their own selfish 
ends. We seemed to look in vain for the beau- 
tiful spirit of humility, where each esteemed 
others better than himself, and in honor pre- 
ferred one another. We knew that nothing 
less than this would do in the church of Jesus 
Christ. Without it we are all of the earth 
earthy, we are shorn of our strength and are 
become even weaker than other men. We 
watched with sorrow the criticisms the out- 
side public were making upon the church. But 
we gave ourselves to the defense of the church, 
and refused to see only the faith that was once 
delivered to the saints. We covered the acts of 
the church with a cloak of charity, and made 
apologies for what we esteemed to be more 
an error of judgment, than a deliberate purpose 
of the heart to depart from the things of God. 
We began to hear about liberal Christianity 



4 The: Pe:rse:cutiok 

and inquired what it meant. Leading ministers 
in prominent Orthodox pulpits were ready to 
declare it unto us. They told us that God did 
not mean what he said when he declared that 
the wicked shall be turned into Hell with all the 
nations that forget God. They even let down 
the standard of moral living and sustained 
those who departed from the principles of 
temperance and righteousness. And in many 
instances we were obliged to look on and see 
such men the honored leaders of God's hosts. 
You will readily see how hard this was to bear, 
and then to see others who in their faith were 
clear in utterance, with their lips they drew 
near to God, but in their hearts were far from 
Him. But for all this, a degree of prosperity 
attended our efforts and we had scarcely a 
charge that did not see souls born into the 
kingdom. Appreciative ones were not wanting 
to give us the hearty God bless you, and we 
felt we were repairing the waste places of 
Zion. We spurned the idea that anybody could 
be found in the ministry, having any degree 
of apparent success who would admit the truth 
of any of these points of criticism. But time 
and again we could not avoid seeing them with 



01^ Stj^phbn Strong $ 

open eyes. At least we were pained to see that 
public opinion did not doubt the justness of 
these attacks, but at the same time would set 
about making apologies for them, as though 
they were a chronic disease, that could not be 
cured, and must therefore be endured. Such 
newspaper clippings as the following were fre- 
quently found: 



"too much truth." 



{( 



^A preacher came to a newspaper man in 
this way. *You editors do not tell the truth. 
If you did you could not live; your newspapers 
would be a failure.' The editor replied, 'You 
are right, and the minister who will at all times 
under all circumstances tell the whole truth 
about his members, dead or alive, will not oc- 
cupy his pulpit more than one Sunday, and 
then he will find it necessary to leave town in 
a hurry. The press and the pulpit go hand in 
hand with white-wash brushes and pleasant 
words, magnifying little virtues into big ones.' 
The pulpit, the pen and the grave stone are the 
great saint-making triumvirate! and the great 



6 This PfiRsecuTioN 

minister went away looking very thoughtful, 
while the editor turned to his work." 

Now the great question which arises here is, 
in all fairness for humanity and God, what is 
the editor's work in the light of such utter- 
ances? What is the minister's work? Is it 
true work on the part of either to ignore the 
immovability of true righteousness ? Are we to 
be taught that there is any true moral work, 
that there is any true progress, without ad- 
vancement in virtue ? Still worse, is God dead, 
or living, will he accept any such teachings as 
indicative of His purposes in the earth? Here 
is the pivotal point in the questions which are 
before the world to-day. Whether time serv- 
ing ministers and irresponsible editors, in affili- 
ation with a few designing men and women in 
the churches, and in communities, who consti- 
tute themselves a committee of the whole, to 
manufacture just such social and religious con- 
ditions as they please, shall continue to put up 
whom they will, or what is equally bad put 
down whom they will? Or, shall base hypoc- 
risy be endured when in apparent endorse- 
ment of truth, the ruling is constantly against 
the one whose whole being is absorbed in sim- 



01^ Ste:phen Strong 7 

ply propagating the eternal principles of right- 
eousness in Christ Jesus. As to ourselves, 
Dear Mother, you will see we were not appar- 
ently criticised and persecuted for utterance of 
truth. Not this, but in the midst of unparal- 
leled success, in which we led a discouraged 
little band to unwonted achievement, in which 
we, as leaders, were entitled to our full share 
of the joy and triumph, instead, we were un- 
mercifully attacked, ruthlessly handled, and be- 
trayed by the people we supposed loved us, be- 
fore an unsuspecting community. And thus 
with broken hearts and disappointed hopes and 
closed church doors to make our way as best 
we could. Where would such treatment be 
likely to lead us ? Because we could not brook 
such usage, are we to be called infidel and un- 
believing? Is heaven closed to us because we 
cannot follow such ways, persuading ourselves 
that such leadings are toward heaven? Still 
more are we justified in allowing such wrongs 
to go uncorrected, is it right for a deceived 
public to mistake vSuch a congregation for the 
true church .of Jesus Christ? If God be God, 
the sword of justice must be raised against all 
such, and if so, the only course of duty left is 



8 The Perskcution 

to fcLith fully warn the erring ones themselves, 
and warn the unsuspecting pubUc against their 
further deception. In Ezekiel iii., 18:19, we 
read, "When I say unto the wicked thou shalt 
surely die; and thou givest him not warning, 
nor speakest to warn the wicked from his 
wicked way to save his life; the same wicked 
man shall die in his iniquity ; but his blood will 
I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn 
the wicked and he turn not from his wicked- 
ness nor from his wicked way, he shall die in 
his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul." 
In the light of such truth I feel compelled to 
speak, not with the thought of revenge, but 
with the hope of reform. Moreover, we are 
living in days when the spirit of reform is in 
the air, and it does not stop at long practiced 
evils, or corruptions long since supposed cov- 
ered. At a business convention one of the 
speakers said, ''However, the spirit of the day 
is for reform, and the tendency is to call a 
halt and insist upon the abating of existing 
wrongs." This speaker said that "The men 
who are the direct cause of these abuses should 
be placed where they rightly belong, behind the 
bars of criminals' cells. The mere possession 



o^ Stkphejn Strong 9 

of money and power is not happiness, there 
must be honesty. The accumulation of vast 
fortunes is looked upon with suspicion in the 
present day. The dealers must be honest them- 
selves and insist upon honesty in others.'' 
Now shall business life go into the work of 
reform, shall fearless Roosevelt attack dishon- 
esty with ungloved hands, shall the light shine 
upon all these works that their evils may be ex- 
posed, while at the same time the policy of the 
church shall be to cover up the wrongs of the 
past, leaving the injured ones to smart and 
suffer, without one word of correcting utter- 
ance ? Rather, is it not better to pay some heed 
to the cry which is so commonly made towards 
the life of to-day, ''If such doings are Chris- 
tian, I don't want it; if such men are right, I 
will take my chances." Why not at least stop 
long enough to inquire into the justness of 
these complaints and ascertain whether these 
things are so? If they are not so, let us all 
see it and defend those who are spoken against, 
and wherever the criticism is just, let us in- 
sist upon retraction, repentance and reform. 
Without doubt much criticism is undeserved 
and wrong, but just as sure is it that much is 



lo The Pe:rse:cution 

deserved and it is not fair that the general 
whole should be smirched and weakened by the 
intrigues of those whose only aim is to look out 
for their own selfish ends, and to control in the 
affairs of church and society. How man)^ oth- 
ers have had experiences like mine I know not, 
but I am fearful that much of the following 
wrongs are too common. At least, give me the 
privilege of declaring myself, and do not com- 
pel me to go dov/n to my grave without letting 
the general public know that I stand for right 
and that I do not easily submit to have my 
ministerial robes trampled in the dust, by a 
company of people, who have no true concep- 
tion of what the religion of Christ is. *^I am 
weary with holding in." So do not tire, Dear 
Mother, while I relate to you the mental tor- 
tures of months and years and learn that I am 
forced out upon ground which I never sought. 
God knows I would gladly have avoided it, but 
if by any possibility there shall come greater 
caution and reverence on the part of those who 
are so ready to control, and if it shall come, 
that a vindicated public shall see the true posi- 
tion of God's church and shall come into fel- 
lowship with God, and into union with those 



o:^ Stephen Strong ii 

who have laid aside their evil ways, I can in 
some sense see why it is that God has led me 
in such unusual paths. The great truth must 
stand. GOD IS HOLY, MAN IS UNHOLY, 
and in his practices has departed from his 
Maker. But Christ has died, intercesison has 
been made and the one great creed of the Bible 
is within the reach of all. ''Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." So face 
to face with God let us not stumble if wicked 
men still pursue their wicked ways. No or- 
ganization, or combination, or individual, can 
stand between the soul and its Creator. 
Your affectionate son, 

Si'Ephe:n Strong. 



12 The Persecution 



SECOND LETTER. 

Dearest Mother: — 

Having told you some of the general work 
in which we have been engaged, you will be 
prepared to learn about this particular field. 
Much could be said on the various fields occu- 
pied, but here, interests and experiences unite 
to make this of special importance. Early in 
the winter of 1894 and 1895, we were called to 
the Calvary Church in the enterprising village 
of Thrift. After I had preached three Sab- 
baths on trial, I was unanimously called to the 
pastorate of the church. I found the church 
very much run down in interest, only a few 
attending its services, and the society having 
very little influence, in its standing, in the com- 
munity. We have since learned that in the past 
history of the church, a bad plague spot was 
left upon it. Through mismanagement, the 
society becamiC financially embarrassed and as 
a result lost the church property, and came near 



o^ Sti:phe:n Strong 13 

ending its existence. It was sold under mort- 
gage foreclosure, and what seems strange 
about it is, that one trustee owning a few hun- 
dred dollars refused to put his money out of 
his hands, and in the transaction all that he had 
was lost. His wife died of a broken heart and 
he died in great sorrow because those who 
composed the church were willing to look on 
and witness his impoverishment without even 
suggesting that all should help bear the misfor- 
tune. Many of those familiar with the circum- 
stances of those times declare that the curse of 
God was on the church. And many now say 
that it was that curse that lies at the bottom of 
my deep sorrow. But as nearly all parties 
connected with that experience were either 
dead, or moved away, we could not see why 
new people should be obliged to commit great 
wickedness to keep up the evil record of those 
who had passed to their account. As it ap- 
peared to me at the very beginning of my pas- 
torate, a few poor and socially unrecognized 
people were making a good fight for existence. 
A few others were ashamed of the fact that 
they belonged to the Calvary Church and not 
unfrequently on that account found homes in 



=?«^ 



14 The Perse:cution 

other churches. With fuller light upon the 
subject we can now see that some chose other 
church communions just simply from the ill- 
usage from those who controlled in church 
affairs. But my thought was, as these wrongs 
were so long gone by that we could do nothing 
with them, the right thing to do would be to 
begin at the present, and do right, and God 
would overrule so that permanent success 
would follow. In this I believe I was right, 
and it would have proved so had it not entered 
into the hearts of some of the people to betray 
the cause, and crucify the Son of God afresh. 
Be that as it may, we set about the great task 
of rallying the forces and so laboring that we 
might respect ourselves, and thus obtain the 
favor of God and the confidence of the peo- 
ple. Immediately upon the beginning of our 
work when it was learned that Mrs. Strong 
was a music teacher and an excellent player, 
she was urged to preside at the organ, and at 
the first regular church meeting she was elected 
church organist and so continued to be elected 
to the very last of our stay in the church: 
When we first came, union meetings at Grace 
Church had been planned to be held by Evan- 



01^ Stephen Strong 15 

gelist True. Those meetings proved very bene- 
ficial to the churches and the community at 
large. Two or three hundred joined the other 
churches, about twenty-five joined the Calvary 
Church, which, under all the circumstances, 
seemed a good result for us, even though so 
far below the ingathering of the other 
churches. In fact, a good spiritual interest 
seemed to rest on the church and we enjoyed a 
good degree of prosperity. Among us was one 
Deacon Willrule who had come to the town to 
manufacture a wagon which he had invented. 
He was the Superintendent of the Sunday 
School, was church clerk, and seemed ready 
to hold any office or do any work which might 
be required. It might be said of him that he 
was very active, he seemed to be doing all for 
the 'good of the cause, yet several, even then, 
rose up and declared that he was not a good 
man because he and others had dealt very un- 
fairly and unjustly with Rev. Mr. Knox, my 
predecessor. They loudly declared that he had 
used very unfair means to force Mr. Knox to 
resign. It seems a favorite scheme with this 
Saint in Israel to bring any pastorate to a con- 
clusion by a process of starvation. The plan 



1 6 The: Pj^RsecuTioN 

worked on Rev. Mr. Knox and he declared 
himself "officially starved out." Of course, I 
did not witness this, as it was done before my 
coming, and when any such charges were made 
against him, his present apparent sincerity in 
the work we laid out, caused us to decide in his 
favor and to infer that Mr. Knox was a little 
over sensitive when he thus abruptly resigned. 
One Deacon Slyman was attending church here 
when I first came. He gave evidence of being 
converted in the True meetings and was the 
first one I baptised. For a time he was faithful 
in attendance at prayer meetings, and with the 
others who had joined with the little band who 
were already here, we seemed to be able to 
form a league offensive and defensive for the 
promotion of God's cause, and very soon the 
hearts of the pastor and wife went into the 
brotherly fellowship and there was nothing too 
hard for us if we might see our chosen church 
prosper. The pastor's wife set about building 
up the choir, an orchestra of several pieces was 
obtained, a choir of several voices was ob- 
tained so that when four years had gone by it 
would have been difficult to find better music in 
any church. All seemed happy, the pastor often 



o^ STijPHeN Strong 17 

remarking that such music was heavenly. Of 
course this condition was not reached without 
many discouragements. Sometimes a male 
quartet would constitute the choir. At the first 
the organ and violin was the orchestra, but by 
careful attention the other changes came. The 
Sunday School increased from about fifty to 
two hundred. Good singing was in the Sun- 
day School and at length an orchestra was ob- 
tained for that. Everybody seemed interested 
and everybody could find something to do. In 
the year 1898, Rev. John Duncan, an evan- 
gelist, held meetings in the place and a few 
united with the church from that effort. Fair 
congregations greeted the pastor from time to 
time, but what seemed best, a good fraternal 
feeling prevailed, and the spirit of good fellow- 
ship increased between the churches. It was 
the pastor's ambition to have the Calvary 
Church take its proper place side by side with 
the others. It was gratifying to note from 
time to time how we grew in favor. As is 
always the case, we obtained our recognition 
when we showed we respected ourselves. We 
were not numerically or financially as strong 
as the others, but we were accorded equal rank 



1 8 Tut P£:RS^CUTI0N 

with them as soon as we showed our purpose 
to occupy our proper place. In other words, 
we were helped. Heaven and the people helped 
us as we helped ourselves. Right here there is 
one matter which should be mentioned. I do 
it to show how much harm one man can do. 
There was one, Sam Spoiler, who was here 
when I came and very soon after united with 
the church by letter. He is a peculiar man. 
Seems to see things twisted, and yet possessed 
of a very high opinion of himself and his own 
capabilities. I had all through my life made 
men a study, so as to know how to handle 
them. I studied him, made close fellowship 
with him. I knew his notions were peculiar, 
but I thought I could manage him and make 
him available for church work, as in many 
directions he seemed qualified to do good ser- 
vice. At one time he went into fiery criticism 
of Deacon Willrule. I labored with him and 
changed his views to a different idea in the 
case. I had not the least idea that he had as- 
sailed me. But after two or three years learned 
that he had gone through the adjoining towns 
reporting that I was not a success, and that 
soon there must be a change of pastors in 



o:^ Sti:phe:n Strong 19 

Thrift. To my amazement at one time he 
worked this leaven to such an extent that it 
almost seemed that I must leave. I was able 
to quiet the uprising by telling him to stop slan- 
dering me, and to cease going throughout the 
land uttering untruths about me. By this 
course I then and there assigned him to his 
right place and for three or four years he 
absented himself from the church and we en- 
joyed a rest from his labors. About this time 
Mr. and Mrs. S. Turner came to this place 
from Sand Hill. They loudly proclaimed that 
they had come on account of their great ad- 
miration for me, having previously heard me 
at their home church. Just then we were con- 
tending for proper conduct in the church. One 
or two talking very bad against Deacons Will- 
rule and Slyman as the people were going out 
of the church. Of course this did not tend to 
increase the congregation. We succeeded in 
quieting these outbursts, although we have 
subsequently learned that much that they said 
was true. Another thing that troubled us was, 
the practice of a species of snobbery. Poor as 
the people were, as soon as they began to see 
signs of prosperity, the older ones, and even 



20 The P£;rsecution 

the children, would make it a point to say cut- 
ting things about any, old or young, who did 
not seem to be dressed as good as they fancied 
themselves to be. Of course they would be 
sure to say these things where the ones criti- 
cised would hear it and cause them to feel that 
their presence was not desired. Deacon Will- 
rule said to me, "It is all right to get the poor, 
but we must make the well-to-do specially wel- 
come/' As I discerned these things from time 
to time, I combatted them. I told children and 
all, that it was none of their business how peo- 
ple dressed, only so that they were respectable ; 
that it was God's house and the invitation was 
to all. I believed it then and I believe it now, 
and never so long as I have breath, will I yield 
these principles to these usurpers in Zion. Es- 
pecially were they radical if one should fall 
into sin. The drunkard had only one place, 
and that was on the outside of the church. I 
told them the church was not on trial, it was 
the people who needed reform and it was the 
duty of the church to work these reforms, by 
being kind and gentle and helpful to those who 
were under the power of any sin. About two 
years after we came, R, Weaks and family; 



01^ Stephen Strong ^1\ 

moved into town. He was an excellent violin- 
ist and the chorister persuaded him to bring his 
violin and help in the music. This was the 
beginning of a very fine orchestra of ten or 
twelve pieces. He was a great help to Mrs. 
Strong in keeping the time and expression of 
the music. A few months after he came, he 
was publicly intoxicated. It was a great grief 
to his family and to us all, even himself. As 
time went on, we found his failures were fre- 
quent. Something must be done. We prayed 
with him, guarded him, and warned him of his 
danger. He became sexton of the church. One 
day I was sick with the grippe. My window 
was next the church. I saw him fall down 
three times in going from the church. The 
world turned dark to me, for I had said by 
the grace of God this man must be reformed. 
He was announced to sing in a quartet at a 
convention in the First Church the next day. I 
called for tablet and pen. These were the 
words I wrote : 
"Dear Brother Weaks: — ■ 

"Don't give up. Satan desires to sift you as 
wheat. Come and see me and let us pray over 
it." 



22 The Persecution 

As soon as he was sufficiently sobered, he 
came to my room; we wept together; he 
kneeled at my bedside and asked God to give 
him victory over the terrible appetite. The 
next day he was sufficiently sobered to sing 
and he did so. Soon after this the holiness of 
Deacons Willrule and Slyman asserted itself. 
He must no longer have his place in the church. 
In fact, their idea was he must not even come 
into the church. I quietly told Mr. Weaks to 
take his seat in the congregation for a time; 
but I boldly contended that it was the duty of 
the church to save those who had fallen. I 
have yet to learn where God has told any one 
who had the interest to come to service that 
he could not. Much less does he teach any to 
gather up their garments and draw back and 
say, '*I am holier than thou." Just about that 
time a Rev. Mr. Crane moved into town. He 
began to have aspirations for the pastorate of 
the church, which, of course, he could not get 
so long as I was the occupant. Then without 
my knowledge, three currents of influence 
united against me. Principally, I advocated be- 
ing patient with Mr. Weaks. I contended as 
long as he was under our influence it was our 



01!* Stkphe:n Strong 23 

duty to save him if we could. Then they be- 
gan to cry, "Strong must go." This was good 
news to Rev. Mr. Crane, as he wanted the 
place. Sam Spoiler's notion could now get 
hearing and ere I was aware. Rev. Mr. Crane 
came to inform me that the church desired a 
change of pastors. Mark ! This thing was not 
known outside of eight or ten families. So it 
followed as soon as I asserted myself on the 
temperance question they could not do other- 
wise than to quiet down. I told the professedly 
staunch temperance men, you will get your 
temperance speakers and listen to their thrilling 
experiences while trying to save the fallen and 
count them to be great workers for God, but 
when your own pastor does that which excels 
what any of them have done, lo! he must re- 
sign. Of course, their plan fell through; 
Crane's ambition was foiled ; and Sam Spoiler 
had opportunity to sit down and look at his 
own meanness. Then the work rallied. Mr. 
Weaks professed conversion, united with the 
church, and, as we supposed, all was forgotten 
and we were looking forward to the prize of 
our high calling of God in Jesus Christ. Then 
came frequent additions to the church member- 



24 The Perse:cution 

ship. In all I baptised about one hundred dur- 
ing my pastorate, married over one hundred 
couples and stood over the open grave with 
many mourners. Our salary was small; five 
hundred and a donation, and we paid our own 
house rent. But God knows how willingly we 
worked, Mrs. Strong playing the organ with- 
out compensation. We were satisfied to see 
the church prosper, and the people professed 
to love us. Improvements marked every line 
of effort and there was rapid progress. We 
grew in the estimation of the public and our 
efforts received a good support from the pub- 
lic. We all rejoiced and congratulated each 
other over our future prospects. From time to 
time repairs were made on the church, a new 
cement walk was laid, a good religious interest 
seemed to pervade all and we thanked God and 
took courage. Visiting brethren were much 
impressed with the vigor of our work and de- 
clared we were a favored people. I doubt 
whether signs of greater prosperity could any- 
where be found. In the year 1900 I took a trip 
to Europe. To me it was a great occurrence. 
Every foot of the way was a delight I could 
not express my feelings when I first realize4 



OF Stephen Strong 2$ 

that I was out of sight of land on the Atlantic 
Ocean. The Gulf Stream, the Newfoundland 
Banks, the Northern Latitude, the magnificent 
sunset as we rounded the north of Ireland, the 
Giants Causeway, the Frith of Clyde, Green- 
ock, Clyde River with its ship-building, and 
Glasgow will ever be a delight in my memory. 
Scotland, England, Belgium, Germany, 
France, what a magnificent world we live in! 
How wonderful are even the works of man! 
Cathedrals, Churches, Ruins, Cambridge, Ox- 
ford, London, Paris, Cologne and Strasburg, 
a study for a lifetime in the history of any one. 
iYes, always material for thought. And then 
the home again from a foreign shore and in 
our hearts to exclaim. Grand America! Then 
duties again. The rented house in which we 
lived was sold while I was on the Ocean, a 
cause of great anxiety to Mrs. Strong. This 
news greeted me in her letter which I received 
in London. Another house must be sought. 
What was to be done? After several trustee 
meetings, it was decided that I should buy my 
own house, which I did and which we shall 
undoubtedly occupy until my dying day. I 
bought the house because I saw if the church 



26 The: P]^rse:cution 

should buy the parsonage, they would not be 
able to enlarge the church, the thing I so much 
desired to do. It is a pleasant home for which 
we do not cease to thank God. One other fact 
must not be forgotten. At the very first, Dea- 
con Willrule was very frank with me to tell 
me of his affairs. While he was manufactur- 
ing his wagon, it was at a great disadvantage, 
as he did not have money to get them on the 
market. His sales were limited, and his con- 
tracts with the parties who loaned him money 
were of that nature that they took the best part 
of what he did make. He became very much 
involved financially. His workmen were not 
paid and they entered complaints about him, 
especially that he had induced many of them 
to leave good places to come here, and as they 
expressed it, ''to come here to starve." About 
that time five hundred dollars of my own 
money, all that I knew on earth that I pos- 
sessed, was in the bank. I took this and volun- 
tarily offered to loan Mr. Willrule the amount, 
particularly basing my action on his integrity, 
and of his appreciation of what such an act 
would mean. He received it smiUng, instructed 
his daughter to write on the book, "Brother 



01^ Stkphkn Strong 27 

Strong loans me five hundred dollars on my 
integrity." The sequel will show that it was 
just at this point that he failed. Soon after 
that, he called at my house with a seventy-five 
dollar banknote for me to sign. I never kept 
record, but he kept coming with notes until I 
was held for from two to three hundred dol- 
lars at a time. Often times Notices of Protest 
would reach me, but in the end these notes 
were paid and the note also. He was making 
an effort, he seemed a consecrated man, I took 
an unbusiness risk with the thought that in this 
way financial success would come to the 
church, as he gave every evidence of sincerity 
and professed that he would give one-tenth of 
his income to the cause of God. Thus I con- 
tributed to make it possible that a prosperous 
business plant should be in the town. It should 
have counted to my advantage. Instead, it was 
wholly ignored, while he unequivocally at- 
tacked my ministerial standing. He, and those 
associated with him, refused to consider any 
good quality that I possessed and were unable 
to see that my work was a grand success in 
every direction. With the community at large, 
I was in favor, in towns adjoining and conven- 



28 The: Pe:rskcution 

tional work I was cordially greeted. In my 
study I was especially favored and it pleased 
God to give me a clear insight into His word, 
and I could have been easily persuaded that 
this was the beginning of the millennial dawn. 
Our daily life was one continuous round of 
happiness and good cheer. We were living in 
communion with God. Heaven came down 
our souls to greet, and glory crowned the 
mercy seat. It seemed very certain that God 
was with us. 

With much love. 

Your son, 

Ste:phen Strong. 



o^ Ste:phi:n Strong 29 



THIRD LETTER. 

If I could see you and talk with you, I could 
do better, but must be satisfied to write. I am 
now about to tell you of a wonderful achieve- 
ment ; the building of a new church, or, rather, 
the enlargement of the old church. The com- 
mon observer would not have seen the need of 
this improvement. But we were looking into 
the future and saw the need of such an advance 
at that time. I even seemed to hear the voice 
of God calling me to the work. In the year 
1 90 1, by Mrs. Strong's solicitation, Mr. 
Wealthy made a subscription of one thousand 
dollars towards the enterprise. In a few 
months this was increased by others to about 
two thousand dollars. This, with the excep- 
tion of one hundred and fifty dollars, was sub- 
scribed by men outside the church, that is, 
men who did not belong to the church. At 
that point it rested, on account of the lack of 



30 The: Pe:rsi:cution 

interest on the part of the church members, as 
by reason of their small earnings they felt they 
were not able to subscribe anything to the 
cause. But so confident were we, that we re- 
tained the subscription paper, drew up plans 
for the improvement and as occasion permitted 
kept the subject agitated. In 1902 the matter 
was again pressed. A church meeting was 
called, the plans were submitted, the necessity 
of the church member's subscriptions was 
urged, a committee was appointed to circulate 
the paper and in a few weeks the members 
themselves had subscribed about five hundred 
dollars. This prepared the way for the out- 
side circulation and soon it reached three 
thousand dollars and more. We sought to let 
the job to a contractor, but failed. It was now 
so near fall that it was obliged to go over until 
the next year. Meantime the First Church 
was building a new church and were present- 
ing their subscriptions to the people, thus ren- 
dering it very hard to keep up the idea of put- 
ting our repairs through. Sometimes we felt 
if we did it, we would be obliged to do so over 
the heads of the members of the church. Prac- 
tically that is what we did do, as their attitude 



01^ Stephen Strong 31 

toward the cause was by no means assuring. 
Still, all saw that the church needed the added 
room, and none hesitated only at their selfish 
desire to retain their little pittance should the 
work be allowed to stop. It had been my pur- 
pose to appoint Mr. Fairman, who was chair- 
man of the Board of Trustees, chairman of 
the building committee, procure an architect, 
and early in the year 1903 begin the work. In 
the spring a meeting of the building commit- 
tee was called, the above plans w^ere presented, 
the architect was suggested, when Deacon 
Willrule requested that we should appoint him 
manager, and he would complete a draft of 
the plans and would put the whole work 
through to a finish. As no one else stood ready 
to do so much, he was appointed. When the 
plans were completed, we saw that five thou- 
sand dollars and upwards would be necessary 
for the enterprise. The subscription paper was 
circulated until it reached that amount. But 
Deacon Willrule was crowded with his work 
and the matter dragged. Day after day, week 
after week, I urged him on. In August, 1903, 
the work began. The excavators, the masons, 
the carpenters, the decorators, the plumbers. 



3^ Thi; Perse:cution 

made the old church a busy place and a happy 
pastor was congratulating himself over an ac- 
complished work. The improvements being 
large, they could not be completed before win- 
ter. The building was enclosed, and when the 
winds blew and the snows fell, the workmen 
were busy inside. It was an exceptionally cold 
and hard winter. The County Convention was 
held in a hall in Thrift in the fall, and imme- 
diately after, the church discontinued services, 
the pastor and his wife taking a much needed 
rest for two or three weeks. This was all the 
vacation we had for the months we were scat- 
tered, with the exception that I could not 
preach regularly. For a few weeks a few of 
us met with Grace Church, the pastor taking 
his turn in preaching there. In all reason, it 
was expected that everything should bend to 
getting the church ready to be occupied and 
we looked forward to it with a glad hope. 
Meantime the subscription paper was circu- 
lated and the absorbing purpose was to have 
the church dedicated free from debt. It was 
the custom of the church to begin their Eccle- 
siastic year with the first of January. The 
financial plan was not good, but it had been 



01^ Stephe:n Strong 33; 

all it could be under the conditions. The pas- 
tor's salary was obtained by a special subscrip- 
tion. It was never paid on time, because of 
the poverty of the people, but it always came 
sooner or later. The church was dedicated 
the seventeenth of January, 1904. It will be 
seen that the time for circulating the subscrip- 
tion for the pastor's salary came while we were 
broken up. The pastor himself instructed the 
committee to let it all rest until after the dedi- 
cation so as to avoid conflicting interests. Its 
wisdom was commended when two or three 
weeks after the opening, the whole amount was 
subscribed and the funds for the new church 
were all provided for. Of course, I knew that 
money did not come to me very fast, but this 
I attributed to the burdens necessary in paying 
for the church. The dedication service 
through, the needed amount pledged for the 
work, I naturally looked for something to be 
done for me. I saw the committee and urged 
to salary and donation. As I see now, both 
were drifting, and it was the purpose of the 
committee and their advisors to have it so. As 
I called upon the chairman of the committee, 
Mr. Littleman, he insolently informed me that 



34 'Th^ Pe;rsecution 

it was not their purpose to do anything, trying 
to make it appear that they could not. I asked 
what the objection to me was and he said, ^'The 
preaching was not smart enough." This to me 
was a terrible blow, it nearly cost me my life. 
It was a dagger sent to my heart. Yet I did 
not believe it could be possible after I had car- 
ried the work to such a success that enough 
members could be found to do available harm. 
I quietly went about my work, was incessant 
night and day preparing sermons, and other 
duties, and in much prayer. The donation 
came off, and as I see now, in spite of all their 
efforts to spoil it, it was a success. Money was 
paid in on salary, but it was applied on the 
arrearages of the previous year. Good congre- 
gations were in attendance at the preaching. 
Things were coming into shape. Subsequent 
events have shown that all that was lacking 
was the co-operation of the bosses, who were 
determined that no part of the honor which 
belonged to me should ever be given me. I 
did not know all this, I felt there were obstacles 
in the way, but I determined, whatever they 
were, I would overcome them as I had every 
other difficulty and see the whole enterprise 



o^ Stkphe:n Strong 35 

come through in triumph, with praise to God 
and honor to men. I cannot even now see how 
such a victory was prevented. How is it possi- 
ble that a few leaders could take up such an 
unholy work and gain any advance at all in a 
civilized community? I confess that I am 
wholly uninformed about the workings of that 
kind of politics. It is too subtle for me and 
I do not care to become familiar with its dia- 
bolical workings. It is just at this point that 
society is in danger. The many do not seem 
to inquire why things are as they are, but 
simply fall in and become sharers in the wick- 
edness of those who lead them. In such light 
we see a justice that such people should suffer 
for the sins of their leaders. It is their ac- 
quiescence that makes the wickedness possible. 
In II Samuel 24, we read that the people suf- 
fered for David's sin in numbering the peo- 
ple. Seventy thousand died for his folly. 
Must it always be so? When will the plague 
stay? Well would it be for the people, if the 
leaders would confess their fault as David did. 
Hear him as he pleads with God. "I have 
sinned and done wickedly, but these sheep, 
what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray 



36 Tnfi Persecution 

thee, be against me, and against my fathei's 
house." Then was David permitted to erect 
his altar and the plague was stayed. But if 
leaders will go wrong, the people must live 
with open eyes or bear their own folly. Lest 
the reader, Dear Mother, lose sight of the real 
purpose of these letters, we will here plainly 
state the case. It is a rule in equity and in 
natural law, that any one is entitled to the 
legitimate returns of his work. A company 
of men taking risks should share their gains 
pro rata according to their investment. It 
applies to all possible human effort. God him- 
self has ordained that it should be so. Espe- 
cially does he require it to be so in the work- 
ing of his church. He declares in His word 
that the workman is worthy of his hire. The 
faithful pastor is worthy of his hire and under 
God is entitled to all the emoluments of his 
office. Now, what had the pastor done in 
Thrift? Under Divine leadership he had gone 
out in advance of the church and had accom- 
plished great results. To be sure, in the end 
he had enlisted an indifferent church, until all 
seemed united in accomplishing the evident 
need and now it was done. Every one who 



01^ Ste:phen Strong 37 

had done anything for the cause was entitled to 
his reward. It is a fair question to ask now, 
what was my part of the reward? Surely 
they owed me something, more than dollars 
and cents. We had all along received a pre- 
cious few of these, for the people told us they 
were poor. We shared our crust with them, 
but there is something more to a public man 
than money. It is his reputation, the minister 
is dependent upon his ministerial standing. If 
he is a failure in his work, then it is perfectly 
fair that he should be called a failure, and step 
aside and let some one who can succeed come 
on and take his place. We all know that fail- 
ure is a hard word to write against any man 
in his life profession. It is terrible to be borne 
when his own faults, for any cause whatever, 
make it impossible to be otherwise. Years ago 
a minister overtaken in a sin for which he 
could only blame himself, mournfully asked to 
be left to himself that he might walk down the 
plank of life alone. Where is a heart so hard 
that it is not moved by such a plea, even though 
his guilt is acknowledged? But with me the 
case was different. Sermons were preached 
that moved hearts to repentance, pastoral visi- 



38 The: Pe:rse:cution 

tations were constant with words of comfort 
to the needy. Appropriate rejoicings at the 
marriage altar, tears of sorrow with those who 
mourn their dead, opposition to evil in all its 
forms, and added to all, a church building car- 
ried to completion with its cost provided for, 
the church music taking rank with the best in 
the land, both pastor and wife highly esteemed 
by the entire community, and their many 
friends. If that is not success, then WHERE 
is it? For all this we were entitled to honor 
and praise, it belonged to us, anything less than 
this was robbery. The true pastor seeks men 
to do them good, when he is maligned and tra- 
duced, the people naturally flee from him. I 
had always supposed that deeds accomplished 
would show for themselves. The field of corn 
will be its own witness of the faithful tillage 
of the day's work done. We do not hesitate 
to state that he who contradicts such evidence 
is a falsifier, and yet we know many a man 
has been despoiled of that which is rightfully 
his by the intrigues of designing men. But 
any who judge righteously can only look with 
contempt upon those who, through any motive, 
attempt to put down those whom God has 



o^ Stdphsjn Strong 39 

established. The pastor was conscious that a 
high order of work had been done, he did not 
think that any company of maligners could 
make any headway against such achievements, 
because truth is truth and must stand. If 
every man waited until everybody should speak 
favorably of him, he would never take up the 
work of life. So, while the pastor was aware 
that a few restless spirits stood ready to de- 
stroy all that was good, he did not believe that 
they could. The question is — Can't men be- 
lieve their own eyes ? — when they know a thing 
how can it be doubted? If a man witnesses a 
murder, does he not know it, if the murderer 
stands his ground and reveals his identity, does 
he not know who he is? How then can the 
murderer be recognized as a good man, until 
he acknowledges his crime and repents? Has 
it come to pass that churches can traduce their 
ministers and send them out with aching hearts 
to bear abuse, and is there no help ? They tell 
us that we must be silent and wait, and ere 
long some awful punishment will overtake 
them and God will be avenged. But is it not 
better that the wrongdoers shall be warned? 
Must he wait until he has reached the hour 



40 Thk Pe:rs^cution 

when there is no time for repentance? Must 
God's cause be fouled with these, and their 
wrongs, until a universal disgust has risen up 
causing honest men even to doubt God? Bet- 
ter is it to stand at this very spot and demand 
restoration and justice. Let it be loudly pro- 
claimed that he who gives his assent to these 
things, and supports the usurpers, is verily 
guilty. All along the line, voices of the in- 
jured are crying out. No man can be guilt- 
less and disregard this cry. They tell us the 
church has lost its power. Better is it to stand 
at this point and demand justice, with wrongs 
righted and the guilty ones exposed and enable 
the church to start out on a career where many 
may be assured of the blessing of God and the 
confidence of the people. Very lovingly, 

Your son, 

St^phe:n Strong. 



ot Stephen Strong 41 



FOURTH LETTER. 

Dear Mothe:r: — 

Having been thus frank to tell you of these 
achievements, you will be prepared to know 
that any interference, or prevention of suc- 
cess, to the end desired would be a cause of 
great grief. By the middle of April I began 
to feel that something was wrong, some one 
was treacherous, but our aim was complete 
victory over the whole of it. Congregations 
were good, Sunday School increasing, music 
was good. Why should it not be so? We 
now see why it could not be, then we could 
not. An underground, concerted plan was be- 
ing laid to foil us in our attempts. Absence 
from prayer meeting on the part of some, re- 
fusal to do religious duties in meetings seemed 
to show, but we crowded the work through. 
To those thus evilly disposed there must have 
been times of weakening, for only with Satan's 
help did their plans carry. Had I known 



42 The Pi^RSECUTlON 

then what I know now, they would not have 
carried, for a bold assertion of rights on my 
part would have scattered their forces. It is 
for this reason that I write these letters, to 
warn ministers and good people who have the 
work at heart not to yield the cause of God up 
to intriguers. There is no question but that 
right is powerful, and the worst thing the child 
of God can do is to yield a point of righteous- 
ness to evil designers. The Christian life is a 
life of fellowship and it can be exercised only 
when men seek each other's good, and in honor 
prefer one another. The Christ life is a help- 
ful life, it demands fair play, and fair dealing 
in every particular. It never defrauds a 
brother of his rightful standing. It is not right 
to assail another without cause, it is right to 
stand in self-defense. And yet, with a body 
of Christians, self-defense should never be 
necessary. Each should care for the other. So 
prevalent does God design this to be, that no 
one should work injury to his brother. To use 
a figure, it ought to be that one might bare his 
neck in the public highway and no one should 
step upon it. But how different was all this 
with me at that time. With success acknowl- 



01^ Sti:phi:n Strong 43 

edged, sermons prepared faithfully with 
heartfelt desire for the good of the people and 
the glory of God, clear plans for the future, 
THEY were preparing to meet me as though 
these things were NOT so. To such an extent 
did this occupy their mind, that they failed 
to do the things necessary for prosperity. Still 
the weekly work went on. The Sunday school 
picnic was arranged which was to be an excur- 
sion on the canal and a trolley ride to a park. 
Ostensibly the plans now were for the picnic, 
REALLY they were laying plans to attack me. 
When the day of the excursion came, we were 
disappointed in the attendance, which we could 
not account for at that time, NOW we can. 
Their plans for starving their pastor were fail- 
ing, they could not break up his congregation, 
something must be done. Accordingly, the 
night before the picnic a meeting was called 
for the professed purpose of arranging for the 
picnic. Twelve or fifteen were convened. At 
the right time Deacon Slyman asked what 
could be done to relieve the church of its pres- 
ent pastor. To some it was astounding, but 
enough bosses were sure to be there to bring it 
before the meeting. It was discussed by the 



44 The; PfiRSE:cuTioN 

few, a committee was appointed to wait on the 
pastor, consisting of Deacon Willrule, Peter 
Small and Daniel Downer. The question was 
asked what effect this would have on the pub- 
lic, and then what would happen if the Elder 
does not take it pleasantly. One of the leaders 
said, "It might hurt them for a while, but it 
would depend on the kind of minister they pro- 
cured to succeed him." It was talked over pro 
and con, mostly pro, and they adjourned com- 
mitted to one of the MEANEST acts that this 
world ever witnessed. The next day came, 
the pastor and wife in the excursion. Mrs. 
Strong led the orchestra music, and the pastor 
entertained those who had kindly joined with 
us in the excursion. As we have afterwards 
learned, the principal topic behind the scenes 
was the nefarious work of the night before, 
which we knew nothing of. As the boat neared 
home, one sister came in an apparent sympathy 
reviewing our financial obligations, and re- 
ferred to our burdens. I remarked, "That be- 
ing the case, we had only to share our burdens 
and meet our obligations." "Oh!" but she 
said, "They're not goin' to." What that meant 
I could not make out, but when the next prayer 



o^ Sti:phi:n Strong 45 

meeting night came, Mr. Weaks told Mrs. 
Strong what had been done. She told him that 
it could not be possible, they would not be 
guilty of such a wrong. He assured her that 
it was so ; that a committee of the above named 
would soon seek me and ask me to resign. We 
came to our home with broken hearts, and we 
began to inquire, where is the God of justice 
and of righteousness? We were not skilled in 
meeting such exigencies. We knew that it was 
all wrong, but we seemed paralyzed. We 
knew we had friends, but where were they? 
As one said afterward, ''Your friends should 
have been out just as vigorously defending you 
as they were attacking you." But he bethought 
himself and said, "That we could not do, as 
we knew nothing of it until their wicked 
schemes were accomplished." Mrs. Strong 
and myself were nearly wild with grief and 
disappointment. It was impossible for us to 
conceal our feelings. I was not prepared yet 
to meet the committee. The next Monday 
evening I went calling to avoid their calling 
on me. It was opportune, for while I was out 
the three executioners came. Mrs. Strong was 
alone. They entered my home with all their 



T 



46 Th^ Pe:rse:cution 

wonted assurance, asking if I was at home. 
She informed them I was out calHng. They 
asked when I would be home. She told them 
she could not tell. They asked what night 
they could see me. She told them she could 
not tell. She discovered their determined pur- 
pose, and that it would be futile for me to try 
to evade them longer, and they went away with 
the understanding that I would appoint a time 
and place in the near future. When I reached 
home a short time after, I was informed of 
their visit and that it was evident that it would 
do me no good to try to delay it long as they 
came with a determined spirit. Before I saw 
them I wanted to see Mr. Wealthy and Judge 
Church. The next morning I imparted the 
knowledge to Mr. Wealthy. He was not a 
member of the church, but had been a regular 
attendant on Sunday mornings through my en- 
tire pastorate. He was at this time in disagree- 
ment with his business partner. So much had 
it affected him that he was in a condition of 
collapse and was near nervous prostration. As 
I unfolded to him the plot, he grew nervous 
and would ask me to stop for a minute that he 
might gain control of himself, and he would 



01^ Ste:phen Strong 47 

frequently say, ^'This is all dead wrong" and 
then would exclaim, "What an awful sin the 
sin of ingratitude is." I also called on Judge 
Church. He was a member of the First 
Church and was a heavy supporter there. But 
I had procured a subscription of three hun- 
dred dollars from him and I felt that I wanted 
to make some explanation to him. I intro- 
duced the subject by asking him if there was 
any reason why I might not be a private citi- 
zen in Thrift, as I had been informed that a 
committee was appointed to wait on me and 
ask me to resign. He w^as amazed at the in- 
telligence, as he had never heard about the 
matter, but after a moment of reflection he 
said, "Certainly, after you have done what you 
have for them, I think if I were you I would 
resign with a great deal of dignity." He said 
farther, "I do not know as it is of any particu- 
lar advantage to you in this community to be 
a rattling around with them," and he was very 
plain in his denunciation of the course they 
were taking with me. As these two men will 
be mentioned in the coming pages, we will pass 
them now. Judge Church retaining his posi- 
tion to his dying day, Mr. Wealthy weakening. 



48 Th^ PeRSEicuTioisr 

I then notified the committee that I would meet 
them on Wednesday eve in the pastor's study 
in the church, and set about preparing myself 
for so trying an ordeal. At about the hour 
appointed, the committee came. As I started 
for the meeting, Mrs. Strong placed a letter to 
Deacon Willrule in my hand which will soon 
be inserted in full. That meeting was a scene 
for an artist. The pose of the committee and 
pastor should have been photographed and 
some fine delineator of emotion should describe 
it. THEIR manner was, THEY owned it all, 
the pastor had no rights that they were bound 
to respect. Given that THEY wanted the pas- 
tor to resign, no honor, or decency, or princi- 
ple of fair play, was to enter into the arrange- 
ment. Accordingly, the ceremony began. Af- 
ter a few brief words, the pastor told them to 
say it out now, and give a clear statement of 
what the trouble was all about. Deacon Will- 
rule asked me how much the church owed me. 
I told him ALL of the present current year, 
and part of the preceding year. He said the 
church would pay me that, I said, "Undoubt- 
edly." Then I asked for the reasons of their 
actions. Their spokesman. Deacon Willrule, 



o^ STEPireN Strong 49 

explained that there had been no church meet- 
ing, but several of the representative men of 
the church had met and instructed them v^hat 
to say. I then said, "What are your reasons?'' 
and their spokesman gave the following : 

FIRST: While they readily acknowledged 
that, on occasions, and frequently, the pastor 
preached great sermons, yet sometimes in the 
ordinary work they got the warmed over stuff. 

SECOND: Some of the people wanted the 
pastor to come into their homes, read a chapter 
in the Bible, and pray. 

THIRD : The church had been to a great ex- 
pense in repairing and it has now come to be 
hard work to obtain the running expenses. 

FOURTH : They wanted a change. 

Each member of the committee had an op- 
portunity to express himself which was simply 
a substantiation of the above. I then began 
my answer to their statements. I told them 
at the outset to understand one thing. Cal- 
vary Church has the right to call and dismiss 
its pastor, and that no one was more pleased 
to have it so than I was. But, that this attack 
should come now, when I had so much in- 
volved in point of credit for my effort and sue- 



50 Tn^ Pe:rskcution 

cess, and the great wrong that would be done 
me if they carried out this plan, their present 
act was an outrage, and was of the devil. It 
lacked in every principle of fair dealing and 
honesty, saying nothing about the religion that 
should prevail in church affairs which ought 
to silence their plan and call them to a halt. 
As to the first, I was too indignant to make any 
reply to it. The idea that in one breath a 
church acknowledges a preacher's exceptional 
ability to preach and then try to send the im- 
pression abroad that he is a poor preacher. 
THEN that I would not be honest with God 
and my congregations and do my best on all 
occasions was preposterous. It was simply an 
insult and a lie. As to the second, I asked 
how long this complaint had been made. They 
said, "About one and one-half years.'' Then 
I said, "The idea that I would not go into any 
home and pray." But said I, "Don't you 
know — if you don't you ought to — that I have 
been on the dead run to bring about these re- 
pairs for more than that time. And yet the 
very thing you are complaining of I have done 
within a week." I told them they all knew 
that it was perfectly absurd for them to attack 



o-^ Ste:phe:n Strong 51 

me in any such way. The third, financial diffi- 
culty. I showed them that in reaHty they were 
not in straits. If they should go on until Jan- 
uary as they were now going, they would not 
be more than two hundred and fifty dollars in 
arrears. Now that is a small amount of 
money, as we have just raised six thousand 
dollars, but the fact is, you have made this your 
plan and instructed the committee accordingly. 
It is the starvation scheme. Either your com- 
mittee is possessed of the devil, or it is incom- 
petent. So instead of asking me to resign, you 
should ask them, for such a committee is a 
curse to any church. But then, said I, for the 
sake of argument, grant that the people will 
not give me money. There are ways out of 
this without this meanness. I told you some 
time ago, the trustees could make a note for 
three hundred dollars, and if necessary carry 
it for years, and it would not hurt the church 
at all. Or, again, the Ladies' Aid Society have 
been in the habit of aiding in getting the pas- 
tor's salary, which for the past two or three 
years they have applied to the organ fund. 
They have been asked to resume their former 
obligation and let the organ fund wait. But 



52 The Persecution- 

no, none of these things avail. The facts are, 
it is your purpose to keep this financial string 
taut, and let all be on me, knowing that sooner 
or later it must break to my consternation. In 
fact, your plan is a plot and you mean my 
downfall at all hazards." Then I said to Dea- 
con Willrule, "Mr. Willrule, in view of what I 
have done for you, you could have put your 
hand in your own pocket and paid every last 
dollar of the arrearage, and then you would 
not have done for me what I have done for 
you." Then I said to Mr. Small, "This is not 
an ordinary resignation. My home is here, 
and my part of the great work will be 
wrenched from me, if you thus mercilessly pro- 
ceed." I told Mr. Downer, he had worked his 
plan by coming to Christian Endeavor and 
purposely going away before preaching with 
the express purpose of breaking up my Sunday 
evening congregations, a thing which you have 
not been able to do, although you have been 
secretly fighting me while the public knew 
nothing about it. Only a few weeks before 
this you held me to a Sunday evening congre- 
gation, when neither Grace Church nor First 
Church could get one, and yet I did. Both of 



01^ Stephen Strong 53 

these churches, however, covered their pastors 
from this strain by taking up their evening 
services during the time of the vacation. So 
when you come to me assuming that we do 
not have good congregations, you are falsify- 
ing. I then told the committee I would an- 
swer them on Sunday. Then I turned to Dea- 
con Willrule and said, ''Here is a letter from 
Mrs. Strong to you, you can read it to these 
gentlemen if you wish to." I said, "You will 
notice that she has presented a bill for four 
hundred and seventy-eight dollars and twenty- 
five cents for playing the organ and other ex- 
penses we have been to." I then retired and 
left them to read the letter. 

THE lyETTER. 

THRII^T, July 20, 1904. 
Mr. WiIvIvRUI^E: — 

Do not think for one moment that you are 
doing the Lord's work when you are making 
such work of the Lord's cause as this. We 
have given ten of the best years of our lives 
to building up and talking up the cause of the 
Calvary Church in this place, and you are tear- 



r 



54 TH:e Persecution 

ing this down, and all the work and money 
that others through our influence have given. 
Mr. Wealthy and Judge Church say that they 
would not have given their money only for 
Mr. Strong, and, as they considered, his good 
judgment. We supposed then that the church 
would prove worthy of the trust committed to 
them through our effort. They have proved 
themselves unworthy, and you as their leader, 
are held responsible. Mr. Wealthy, a member 
of the pulpit committee, and giving one-fourth 
of the money for the building of the church, 
says he has not been consulted in this matter. 
He says he would not have believed it possible 
that in the name of the church such an outrage 
could be committed; that it would have been 
better for the church in the eyes of this com- 
munity if they had locked the church doors. 
For it, he says, is the destruction of the church 
and that after we have done for the church 
what we have done, instead of receiving such 
treatment as this, the church, and you, as their 
leader, should have sustained Mr. Strong in 
every possible way, by kindness, and love, and 
appreciation, and left it to Mr. Strong's good 
judgment when it would be best for him to 



0I^ STEPHeN Strong 55 

leave; that the work was not completed, that 
much was yet to be done which only Mr. 
Strong could do and for this attack to come 
now was not only unkind but cruel. Mr. 
Wealthy also says, that he never felt so bad in 
his life, that it is crushing him, so he cannot 
even talk about it. He has been to see you 
two or three times and did not find you, and 
yesterday he told Mr. Strong he felt so dread- 
fully over it that in his nervous condition he 
feared he should drop dead if he should talk 
with you. He, not a member of the church, 
has more regard for the life and standing of 
the church than you have. Judge Church feels 
the same in regard to this treatment. He says 
that we shall stand high, while the church 
will suffer and go down. The church must 
not hold us responsible for this. We have 
tried in every possible way to avoid this calam- 
ity, and God or men will not hold us responsi- 
ble. The trouble is made to appear that it 
rests on our salary, for which we should never 
have been made to suffer as we have, while we 
were giving our best effort all the time for 
the church. We have tried to plan in different 
way^ to help in the matter, every plan has 



56 The: P^rse:cution 

been resisted, making it evident that the 
money and effort, on the part of the church, 
were purposely withheld. The whole thought 
is unrighteous, and then to put a climax on 
such unrighteousness to attack Mr. Strong on 
his preaching, when the whole community say 
now and have in the past, that he always sus- 
tains himself in a highly creditable manner. 
You would not only try to starve him, but you 
would also rob him of his standing as a minis- 
ter of the Gospel. This last week Mr. 
Wealthy said that Mr. Strong had helped you 
in your business standing, when not a business 
man in the community would have done it. 
That he would not himself, and he at the time 
advised Mr. Strong not to. He thinks this a 
poor return. It would have been better for 
you and a duty you owe yourself, as well as 
Mr. Strong, to have helped Mr. Strong from 
your own pocket in his time of need and help, 
than to lose the regard of the people of this 
place as you have now done. Do not walk 
the streets of this town with the same assur- 
ance you have, public opinion will see the right 
of this. This church belongs to us more than 
to it3 members. Mr. Wealthy and Judge 



o^ Stephe:n Strong 57 

Church and every one outside say it would 
never have been rebuilt but for Mr. Strong. 
And it is a pity we could not be allowed to 
enjoy it with peace and fellowship with the 
people we supposed were our friends, and for 
whom we have worked so faithfully, for at 
least one year. We loved the church, and the 
people in it, have given ten of the best years 
of our lives to it, and then as a reward, to re- 
ceive such treatment as this, 1 resent it with 
all the strength there is in me. Do not talk to 
me of love and friendship, this conduct is far 
from that. When I first heard of that secret 
meeting, and that it was decided to send three 
men, and you one of the three, I said, ''They 
ought to bring their guns with them and finish 
their work, for this is murder in the sight of 
God." Do you know what this has done for 
me? It has almost made me doubt God. I 
have had two weeks of such struggle as I 
never had in my life. I am capable of loving a 
cause and people as few can or do. I had 
given that to this people. I have in the last 
two weeks lived through the death and burial 
of that love and interest. I have slept very 
little in that time, my strength is almost gone. 



S8 Thi^ P]eRSi:CUTlON 

You have almost killed my husband, whose 
life and health are precious to me. You have 
killed my love for you and my faith in people, 
and not until last night did I gain the victory 
of my trust in God. With it came the feel- 
ing that I not only regretted the service I had 
given in love for this church, but I am 
ashamed that I have given it to a people so 
unworthy of it. And, since in return we do 
not have the love and appreciation due us, I 
not only ask, but demand a very small pay- 
ment for the service I have given this church. 
You will see from the bill I present, that I do 
not include the time spent in four or five con- 
certs every year, or extra rehearsals for solo, 
duet and quartet work, or orchestra work, and 
music I have bought and given this church. I 
have been asked many times by people outside 
the church what salary I received for my 
work; they thought it so foolish for me to do 
it for nothing. They were wiser than I. I 
did it for love and appreciation and to help the 
cause. I shall never be so unwise again. I 
thought the night you three came to the house 
on the errand you came with, that I could re- 
member when you came to our home on very 



J 



01!' St]^phe:n Strong 59 

different errands. When you wanted Mr. 
Strong to sign notes with you. The only 
friend you had that would do that for you ; no 
business man would have done that for you. 
Also, Mr. Strong loaned you the five hundred 
knowing that you were insolvent, but at the 
same time telling you he would take no present 
for it. It was loaned you on your integrity. 
He knew that whatever protection you might 
give him would be of no value as soon as your 
property should pass to a receiver's hands. 
Now you have come to prosperity, instead of 
allowing yourself to be a party to smite and 
kill the hand that has blessed you, and helped 
you, it would have been more fitting and ap- 
propriate for you to have given Mr. Strong a 
present of five hundred in return for the five 
hundred he loaned you in your time of need. 
I have heard and read of such gratitude as 
that. You COULD have proved yourself a 
Christian man; by standing up for him and 
sustaining him with your influence as he did 
for you, and not allow such an injustice to 
come. If Mr. Strong could not speak above a 
whisper, and that not more than ten minutes at 
a time, the church could afford to keep him, 



6o The: Pe^rshcution 

and love him, and appreciate him, instead of 
doing this wicked ungrateful deed in the sight 
of God and man. This church ought to be so 
ashamed of themselves for this treatment of 
him, that they could not hold up their heads. 
I do not include any who are innocent and do 
not know of this wicked plot to destroy and 
kill Mr. Strong. Do not tell me that this is 
doing God's work. It is the work of the devil. 
And you and others need to repent on your 
knees for the worst of all sins, INGRATI- 
TUDE. The judgment of God will follow 
this. For the Bible says, "Woe unto him 
who hurts one of his children, it were better 
for that man if he were drowned in the depths 
of the sea." xA.lso, "Touch not the Lord's 
annointed and do my prophets no harm." 
People are very careless of God's warnings in 
these days, and while the Lord is slow to 
anger and of great mercy, he is also just ! and 
sins that are not repented of must receive pun- 
ishment. There are degrees of sin. The sins 
of card playing and dancing and theater going 
are mild, compared to this. With the excep- 
tion of four or five Sabbaths in all these years, 
we have supplied the pulpit at our expense in 



01^ Ste:phe:n Strong 6i 

Mr. Strong's absence. With the exception of 
three weeks, during the months we were re- 
pairing, we were working for the church; try- 
ing to get money for the church. I shall pre- 
sent a bill for our expenses to the State Con- 
vention, as we should not have gone only for 
the church. Other churches give their minis- 
ters vacations, often helping, or paying their 
expenses; and do not allow them to worry 
about their salary. Mr. Prudence receives 
payment on his salary every week and Judge 
Church said, ''When Mr. Prudence resigned 
it would be at his own option; they should 
never ask him to resign." If Grace Church are 
back on their pastor's salary, the trustees make 
a note every quarter and pay their pastor, and 
do not allow him to worry. In contrast, this 
church has not only allowed Mr. Strong to be 
greatly embarrassed, but have deliberately 
tried not to get his salary; and then have the 
audacity to criticise his sermons and say, 
'Toor souls, that they cannot get interested." 
I have told him a good many times, the last six 
months, I did not see how he could preach 
such grand sermons when he could not meet 
his bills. And when the church was SO in- 



62 The Pe:rse:cution 

different, he was charitably excusing them all 
the time, until this knowledge of what they 
were trying to do came to him. He asked 
you to loan him money. You refused, not 
seeing it worth your while to relieve him. You 
have had money for your own pleasure and 
your family and you have not lost any sleep 
on account of the needs of your pastor. And 
others in the church have not seemed to care; 
and then call this doing God's will. I do not 
so understand His will. Mr. Strong is not in 
any sense responsible for this letter. I should 
send it to you, and stand by it, if he and all 
the world should forbid my doing it. It is a 
duty I must do in the sight of God, however 
you may receive it." 

Sincerely, 

Margare:t Strong. 

Your affectionate son, 
Stephen Strong. 



01^ Stkphe:n Strong 63 



FIFTH LETTER. 

D^AR Mothe:r : — 

After this awful experience, I went to my 
home nearly crazed with sorrow and grief. 
My dear wife seemed as if in a trance. All 
seemed the sounding of our death knell and 
we only wondered why we did not succumb 
to the butcherous attack. Still, we did not 
feel that, after reading that letter, they would 
allow me to resign. And we did think they 
would desist from their nefarious schemes. 
But the days rolled by and we were forced to 
the awful conclusion that they did mean our 
public death. And nothing less than this 
would satisfy their greed for our blood. 
Just how to word the resignation was a great 
care to us, for we did not want to hurt the 
cause; neither did we wish to make the pulpit, 
in any sense, a place for controversy, or to 
use it as an opportunity for saying harsh 



64 The: Pe:rs^cution 

things. After consideration, my resignation 
was put in these words. 

"Thrii^T, July 24, 1904. 

"I hereby present my resignation as pastor 
of this church. The above to take effect and 
my duties to terminate September ist, 1904, 
providing my salary is paid in full to that 
date. 

"Ste:phe;n Strong." 

I ought to give an incident in Mrs. Strong's 
experience the night before the committee met 
us. We had passed a sleepless night, as best 
we could. About six A. M. she came to me, 
saying, ''I see it different now. This is our 
Gethsemine. You did not need this. But the 
church needed it. You can't be pastor again, 
but God will vindicate himself." Then she 
began to pray, "Dear Saviour, I have been 
with you all night in the Garden, and I have 
not slept as the disciples did, and thou know- 
est it. Thou knowest how our hearts were 
set on this work and what this usage means 
to us, thou knowest this leaves us without pro- 
tection, and a very little money. But thou wilt 
take care of us and we can trust thee. Then, 
they have seen fit, to criticise your preaching. 



01? Stbphs^n Strong 65 

They will see the day when they will be glad 
to hear your voice again, but they cannot. 
Then there is the beautiful Baptistry, they 
have not allowed you to baptise ONE in it. 
And thou knowest I have been into every room 
in our beautiful home and have tried to find 
if there was not one room where I could spend 
a Sunday, and I could not find it, I wanted 
to go away. But I can do it now, for thou wilt 
be with me and my darling, but the church 
must see this and pass through this Gethse- 
mine, even as we do.'' I saw at once what 
was on her mind, it was simply this, that, at 
the conclusion of my last sermon she should 
give her experience, and then expect God to 
break down all hearts with His overpowering 
presence. I told her I would not interfere 
with her if God called her to that duty. With 
these experiences and many others, the hours 
from Wednesday evening dragged slowly on; 
EVERY MOMENT AN ETERNITY. But 
as no other visitations came, we could see no 
other way than that I should present my resig- 
nation, which I did with the above wording. 
* * * Sunday morning came. * * * Mrs, 
Strong at the organ; the orchestra and choir 



66 The; Pb:rs^cution 

in their places; the house well filled. The 
usual service was gone through; even the last 
hymn was sung. The pastor could see that 
the discontents were getting uneasy, and that 
further delay, on my part, would be too great 
a strain upon our already exhausted nerves. 
I then asked the congregation to be seated and 
read the resignation. To many it came as a 
peal of thunder from a clear sky; but the 
bosses maintained their harshness and turned 
the whole atmosphere into gloom and depres- 
sion. One lady from Grace Church came to 
me and said, "This is NOT religion, it is the 
WANT of it." Some of the heartless women 
went to Mrs. Strong to shake her hand as 
though it were a common school day experi- 
ence. She said to them, ''This is our Gethse- 
mine. You must yet have yours.'' But they 
resented the idea, defiantly saying, "No Geth- 
semine for them." That evening a union ser- 
vice with the other churches was held at the 
Calvary Church. The house was full. At the 
conclusion the shallow brained church clerk, 
without any explanation or statement, read a 
call for a church meeting in two weeks to con- 
sider the resignation of their pastor. To say 



0I^ Stephi:n Strong ()J 

the least of it, it was not in good taste, and 
if the call was necessary at all, it should have 
been given the following Sunday morning. 
But they could not allow this opportunity to 
pass. It was too good a chance for them to 
jflaunt their obloquy on the public. Members 
of other congregations came to me saying, 
'What does this mean, we supposed that there 
was the utmost harmony between pastor and 
people.'' I told them, ''It was all the doings 
of the people and they would have it to an- 
swer for." Mrs. Strong and I went to our 
home in a dire plight. It did us no good to 
say, "Would God it were morning," for as 
soon as morning came we would say, "Would 
God it were night." The truth was, it 
seemed to us we had reached the limit of all 
endurance and were wondering what the next 
step could be. As slow as it was, the night 
wore away. But it made deep inroads upon 
our lacerated nerves. As a means of relief, 
we concluded to lock our house for the week 
and go to friends in an adjoining town. But 
even new surroundings did not lift the awful 
spell. If God had got through with us, why 
did he not take us away from earth ? The call 



68 The: PE^RSE^cuTioisr 

of death would seem nothing as compared 
with this. Here, too, was material of which 
to make infidels. If such people were Chris- 
tians and if such doings were legitimate 
church work, then, of course, no good man or 
woman would want anything to do with the 
church. But we were too well grounded in 
the faith to allow that temptation to hold. We 
could come to only one conclusion, and that 
was, that they were of their father, the devil, 
and his works they were doing. With us the 
whole effort seemed to be to keep breathing 
for what purpose we could not tell. Right 
here we can see where men uselessly commit 
suicide, it does for the moment seem that the 
act of FELO DE SE would bring a relief. 
But a second thought says NO. No one 
should go uncalled into the presence of his 
Maker. With Job we must say, "All the days 
of my appointed time will I wait till my 
change come." Tuesday evening brought the 
Daily with its flaring headlines, "ASKED TO 
RESIGN," and then going on to state that 
Mr. Strong was asked to resign, inferring that 
it was a perfectly legitimate thing for the 
church to do, leaving the public to infer my 



OF Ste:phe;n Strong 69 

exceeding unpopularity. This I purposely de- 
stroyed so that Mrs. Strong could not see it. 
The next evening flaring headlines were in 
the paper, "MRS. STRONG'S BILL," claim- 
ing five hundred dollars for playing the organ 
for more than nine years and other expenses 
for the church. This nearly killed her. She 
declared she could never go to Thrift again. 
A terrible pressure was in her head. The 
awful suspense of what this strain might pro- 
duce was almost unbearable to me. Saturday 
afternoon came. I must go to Thrift for thej 
Sabbath. I did not feel as though I could ask 
her to go, as I knew the strain was tremen- 
dous. But when she saw me about to start, 
she said, "YES, I will go and play the organ' 
as long as you stay." Accordingly, we both' 
came on. The next Sabbath I was to preach 
in Calvary Church in the morning and in the 
First Church in the evening. This called for 
music only for the morning in Calvary 
Church. I went with her to the church Sat- 
urday afternoon while she rehearsed her part 
for the orchestra and choir. In the edge of 
the evening the orchestra, consisting of eleven 
instruments, came and practised. It was not 



70 The PeRSgcuTioN 

my custom to attend the choir rehearsals. I 
spent my time in my study in preparation for 
the next day's service. This was known by 
all. I was just returning from the market 
and the postoffice as the orchestra rehearsal 
closed. A brother asked me if I had seen my 
wife. My heart came in my mouth, for I 
feared she might have collapsed under the 
strain. I hurried home, but he said, "No, 
not there." Then I hastened to the pastor's 
study in the church to witness the most dis- 
graceful thing that my eyes ever rested on. 
There sat Deacon Willrule, Deacon Slyman 
and John Littleman terrorizing my wife. All 
three of them did know enough to know that I 
read them clear through; and understood the 
depth of their meanness. Had they all been 
knocked flat, they would not have received 
their full deserts. This meeting was brought 
about in this way. At the conclusion of the 
orchestra rehearsal, Deacon Willrule went to 
Mrs. Strong as she sat on the organ stool wait- 
ing for the choir to take their places, and asked 
her if she would meet the above named in the 
pastor's study. Deacon Willrule was spokes- 
man, as usual. "Now, Mrs. Strong," he says, 



01^ Ste:phen Strong yi 

i 

'*you would not have presented that bill if this 
thing had not happened." She said, "Cer- 
tainly not, I played for love, the good of the 
cause and the appreciation of the people. But 
as I did not have any of these, I now ask the 
usual money remuneration for such service." 
Then Deacon Slyman chimed in, telling her 
that she had lost all the friends she ever had 
for putting those things in the paper. She 
said, she had put nothing in the paper. He said, 
"Then your husband has." She said "No." 
Just then I entered the room. There was a 
gleam of triumph in Deacon Slyman's eye, 
for he knew that the steel had entered her 
soul. He gloated over this opportunity for 
cruelty. I immediately said, "You charge us 
with making this thing public. I will tell you 
when the publicity began. It was when you 
began your deviltry. Did you expect you were 
going to do this nefarious business and the 
papers not get it? You know they would." 
Then Deacon Willrule said, "Now, Mrs. 
Strong, understand me. I will give you one 
dollar a Sunday for your playing as long as 
your husband stays." She replied, "I know 
what you want. You don't want me to play 



'J2 The Persecution 

the organ any more, and I will not." I said, 
"No, Margaret, you need not! and you need 
not come into this church any more," for I 
saw that she was fast passing beyond the line 
of physical endurance. It was now nine 
o'clock Saturday night. It would be a physi- 
cal impossibility to get her into the church the 
next morning. I went into the audience room 
for her glasses and there were choirister and 
choir awaiting the report of the murderous 
attack. The choirister insolently said, "Are 
we going to have an organist ?'' I did not an- 
swer, but hastened to my wife, took her hj 
the arm and led her home. She immediately 
said, "Now the orchestra will not play unless 
I do and you must go and tell the leader." I 
feared to leave her alone. But I concluded to 
take the half hour to do it. On my return 
home I went for Dr. Helpful, our physician, 
who knew about our woe. I told him of this 
new abuse, and asked him to come home with 
me and come prepared to stay until morning 
if need be, as I was not certain that either of 
us could endure until that time. He came, 
and in gratitude I want to say that we and 
the public are greatly indebted for the skillful 



o^ Stdphdn Strong 73 

work of that night. He stayed with us until 
past midnight, leaving us greatly comforted, 
with anodynes to help the will in controlling 
nerves. It was a lovely moonlight night. I 
walked home with him, as I wanted his pri- 
vate ear in reference to my wife's condition. 
We passed in front of the church. I faced 
about. I said, "Doctor, look at that church! 
a perfect gem from cellar to spire, including 
grounds. My very blood and the blood of my 
wife are in it and yet we cannot enjoy it." He 
said, ''Doctor, your church has betrayed you 
in the eyes of this community just as much as 
Judas ever betrayed Christ. We of the com- 
munity are very sorry for it, but we can't help 
it, they have done it. But rest assured you 
have the profound sympathy of this com- 
munity and I know it." I have thought of 
those words a great many times. Judas be- 
trayed Christ; but he went to his own place. 
He did not attempt to found the church. But 
these betrayers pose as the disciples of Christ; 
and would fain make us believe that such pro- 
ceedings are acceptable to the God of right- 
eousness. They stand as my accusers to 
charge me with my unchristian doings. My sin 



74 The: P£:rse:cution 

is that I did not fall just right when they killed 
me. Their plan was that I should fall dead, 
face down. But instead, there I was, face up. 
Not fully dead. In fact, I did not die the 
usual way, and for that I was a sinner above 
all others. NO, I do not accept the criticism, 
but I do place them among the persecutors. 
Notwithstanding this attack, we lived until 
morning. It was for me to preach twice that 
day. How I controlled my nerves to do so, I 
cannot now tell. But both sermons were 
preached, one in Calvary, the other in the First 
Church. Mrs. Strong attended neither ser- 
vice. Home was a sad place to come to; 
myself nearly exhausted by the strain, my 
darling wife on the very verge of collapse. 
During the week we received many expres- 
sions of sympathy, and some way we discov- 
ered we were enduring the strain. Two Sab- 
baths wore away. Then on Wednesday night 
came the church meeting called to consider my 
resignation, and to give them opportunity to 
affirm their previous wickedness. I concluded 
not to go near it. For I did not know who 
my friends were. My friends mostly stayed 
at home, only five or six of them going to 



o:^ Sthphkn Strong 75 

the meeting. This gave Deacon Slyman op- 
portunity to talk it all his own way. So in a 
heartless manner he began to make motions. 
First, he moved that the church accept the 
pastor's resignation, beginning his remark as 
though they were all engaged in a burlesque, 
sarcastically remarking that the best of friends 
must part. Second, he moved that the church 
give a vacation to the pastor and that he only 
preach two Sundays more. The church paying 
the salary for the remaining two Sundays. 
Both of these resolutions were carried. BUT 
NOT ONE WORD OF THANKS TO 
PASTOR AND WIFE FOR THE WON- 
DERFUL WORK THEY HAD DONE. 
The pastor knew the two weeks vacation only 
meant two Sundays SHUT OFF, for they 
were evidently afraid that harsh things might 
be said. However, the vacation was accepted 
and I now realized that two Sundays more 
would close my active ministry in the church. 
For those two Sundays I concluded to make 
no public reference to the affair, leaving it to 
God, the community, and the church at large 
to vindicate my right. Accordingly, the first 
Sabbath was spent with no apparent, unusual 



"j^ The: Pe:rs]^cution 

interest. During the week some came to talk 
it over. One sister said, '*To be sure you and 
Mrs. Strong will come right along to church." 
I said, ''What do you think I am made of ? Is 
it possible for me to sit and worship with 
those who have tried to starve me and my wife 
for seven long months, and who are only sorry 
that they could not accomplish it?'' Is it wor- 
ship to join with unrepentant sinners in their 
own wickedness? Were the disciples asked 
to worship with Judas after he had betrayed 
Christ?" Another one came to Mrs. Strong 
and said, "Surely, you will come right along 
to church." She said, "No." It was not two 
weeks ago that I came alone to the church, 
went into every room and prayed, even into 
the cellar. I said, "Now, Father, I thank thee 
I have a place where I can work for thee. I 
consecrate myself to do this work. But now 
I do not feel at home, not even as much as 
where I place my foot." It remained for us 
to learn what God wanted us to do. We were 
taught on this question in a very forceable 
manner. We could not mistake. Inquiries 
came from distant friends as to what this all 
meant. Of course this was very humiliating. 



OF Ste:phe:n Strong "jy^ 

There is nothing we shrink from more than 
to be obHged to admit to friends that others 
have belittled and humihated us. And particu- 
larly when every power of our being assures 
us that we are worthy of honor. Under such 
circumstances it is terrible to receive unde- 
served contempt. Alas! if this is the neces- 
sary way of human life, then life is a tragedy. 
Then must men be the prey of evil designers. 
But let not the public be thus deceived, in the 
day of earthly doom when the heavens shall 
be rolled together as a scroll such things can- 
not stand. Before the two weeks of service 
had passed, an awful experience came. This 
was the year of the St. Louis Exposition. The 
Willrule Wagon Company had placed a man 
in St. Louis to exhibit the wagon. It was 
arranged that about the middle of August 
James Willrule, who had this year graduated 
from the public schools, the eighteen-year-old 
son of Deacon Willrule, should take the place 
of this man and remain until the close of the 
Exposition. He went on, that he might have 
about two weeks to look around before his 
duties began. But he had been in St. Louis 
only a few days when he was taken violently 



78 The Persecution 

sick with appendicitis. He was taken to the 
hospital and word was sent to his father to 
come immediately, which was fully complied 
with. Of course, under such circumstances, 
there was great public anxiety in reference to 
James's condition. Once the report came that 
he had submitted to an operation and was 
doing well. This, however, did not comfort 
long, for a telegram came saying that he was 
dead. This was terrible. A young man cut 
off in the morning of his hope. Also, he was 
a young man of fair ability and as the plans 
for his improvement showed, receiving un- 
usual privileges. We must now look for the 
return of the body and the funeral. You can 
see, Dear Mother, what a position this placed 
me in. What was my duty in the case, or, 
rather, how was the family to use me? Soon 
a rumor came from the house that I was neg- 
lecting them. I did not learn this until Sun- 
day P. M. When I went into the pulpit on 
Sunday morning a notice was on the stand to 
the effect that the funeral of James Willrule 
would be held from his late home on Tuesday 
afternoon at two o'clock. No one had been 
near me, I had not been consulted about the 



01^ Stephen Strong 79 

funeral; on the whole, what could I say or 
do ? I read the notice ; in the prayer I prayed 
for the stricken family and community. Af- 
ter the evening service, at about nine-thirty, 
we were waiting for the body to come. I went 
down to the depot; the white hearse and 
crowds of people were there, as might be ex- 
pected under such harrowing circumstances. 
I joined in the procession, went to the home, 
and sat there more than half an hour. Dea- 
con Willrule and his wife came and spoke to 
me. That was all. The undertaker showed 
me the body and I came home in a maze of 
bewilderment. Monday morning Deacon Sly- 
man came to my house announcing the plan 
of the funeral. It was changed to be held at 
the church; the Grace Church Minister was to 
preach ; I was to pray. The Immanuel Pastor, 
who was principal of the school, was to read 
the Scripture. I could do no other than sub- 
mit. Of course I was not so stupid as not to 
know that the Grace Church Minister stood in 
my place. It was hard for me to face the 
large congregation, conjecturing that I was in 
dishonor, for what, no one knew. My ambi- 
tions, my pride, my rights, were all trampled 



8o The: Pe:rsecution 

in the dust. I must submit to let the curious 
conjecture. It was a sad scene. To me it was 
tragic. But of one thing I am sure, no act of 
mine from first to last came in to interfere 
with the privilege of the family to bury their 
dead as they chose. At such times words are 
poor comforters. No tongue or pen can ex- 
press the depths of meaning that such experi- 
ences carry. I made no criticism on the offi- 
ciating clergyman at the time, but really, I 
had the right to expect that he should have 
come to me and expressed regrets that it 
should be so. He should have told me that 
under all the circumstances he reluctantly con- 
sented to officiate, as the dead must be buried, 
but this he did not do. I suppose he would 
say that his duties were so pressing that he 
could not get time. When in reality he did 
not have time NOT to do so. For he knew he 
was taking my place. Which I would have 
filled, if the death had occurred a month be- 
fore. Besides, up to this time we had been 
on most friendly and brotherly terms. I do 
not say this to criticise, but do most earnestly 
put in a plea for ministerial courtesy, one 
towards another. The hour of service over, 



oi^ Stephijn Strong 8i 

the large congregation passed around to see 
the face of the dead boy. As we looked on his 
face, we could but say how fleeting are all 
earthly things. They pass from us ere we 
have reached them. Even those who remain 
seem to linger only to drink the bitter dregs 
of sorrow and disappointment. The earth 
closed over these mortal remains and new 
scenes were spread out before us. Margaret 
and I seemed to be walking in the land of 
shadows and were wondering why death did 
not do its work upon us. Soon people began 
to come to me and say, they believed that 
James' death was a judgment of God on the 
father. I invariably told them, I knew noth- 
ing about that. God moves in a mysterious 
way his wonders to perform. And yet it did 
seem passing strange that not three weeks be- 
fore in Margaret's letter to him she had used 
these words, "The judgment of God will fol- 
low this, etc." But as for myself I make no 
declaration. I do not attempt to solve the 
problem. I leave it with the unfathomable for 
God himself to reveal. 

Your loving son in deep sorrow, 
Sti:phe:n Strong. 



82 Th^ PjeRS^CUTlON 



SIXTH LETTER. 

My Darling Mother: — 

The scenes of the previous letter can never 
be effaced from my memory. Whole life- 
times had crowded themselves into my experi- 
ence, and it was becoming difficult for me to 
act in reference to present duties. It was cer- 
tainly a care to me to prepare for the final 
sermon. That hour was fast approaching, 
Margaret was rendered physically unfit to take 
any farther public part in the matter. It re- 
mained for me to close up the drama and bring 
these heart-rending scenes to a conclusion. I 
dreaded the final Sabbath. How could I get 
strength to stand before a congregation under 
such a pressure. Sunday morning came. I 
simply preached a gospel sermon to a large 
congregation. A stranger present would have 
detected nothing unusual. But when a minis- 
ter's heart is full of present woes and absorb- 
ing conditions, it is difficult to fix the mind on 



0^ Stephen Strong 83 

a theme and follow it By the help of God I 
succeeded in doing this. I held myself open 
for any sympathizer to approach me, and did 
receive expressions of sympathy from a 
goodly number. I knew that all interest must 
'culminate in the evening service. I entered 
the church that night with feelings such as I 
never had before or since. I was passing 
through the opening gate, which was to lead 
me into a life with which I was entirely un- 
familiar. As the hour for service drew near, 
it became apparent that the deacons and ush- 
ers had planned for a very small audience. The 
spirit of depression pervaded the room and 
the expectation was, that a few would assem- 
ble, listen to my unimportant words, the cur- 
tain would fall, and I would pass on to my 
destined obscurity. The electric lights were 
dimly on, as though the congregation was not 
gathering to the most important service that 
was ever held in the church, or ever will be 
held in it. Soon the seats in the audience 
room were all occupied, the dim lights con- 
tinuing. The people must be seated. The 
rolling doors were opened, audience room and 
session room were filled and the full light of 



84 TH:e Persecution 

a brilliantly lighted room fell on an intelli- 
gent audience, more than one-half of which 
were wondering why I was preaching my fare- 
well sermon. The interest was tense. Some 
were fearful that my strength would give out 
before it was over. Some told me afterwards 
that they could not see how I could preach at 
all. They expected to see me overpowered 
and fall headlong. There was a muffled still- 
ness and expectation was at fever heat. I sub- 
sequently learned that Mrs. John Littleman, 
sitting two or three seats back, was heard by 
many to say, "What an old hypocrite he is; 
he will sizzle in hell." The hymns were an- 
nounced and sung, the prayer was offered. I 
took for my theme, THE NIGHT OF THE 
BETRAYAL OP JESUS. I brought before 
the minds of the hearers the scenes of that 
awful night. It was the evening of the pass- 
over. Jesus sat down with the twelve. He 
told who should betray him, Judas went out 
and Jesus passed into Gethsemine. His soul 
was sorrowful unto death. The burden of 
the ages past and to come was upon him; He 
saw the betrayer coming; the multitude with 
stavs; He saw the Cross; he shrank from it. 



01^ Stephen Strong 85 

In my remarks I put special stress upon the 
garden sorrow. The agony that Jesus endured 
when he sweat great drops of blood. I made 
it clear that Jesus lived a life that we were to 
copy after; in fact, we were to follow Him. 
It means much to follow Jesus. Many say 
they do. But do they understand what it 
means? It is not enough to follow him when 
all would honor Him and make Him King; 
we are not to follow him in the ordinary paths 
alone; we are to go with Him in the dark 
hours: ALL THE WAY: IN GETHSE- 
MINE. Yes, they were to follow Jesus all 
the way, through the Garden, for there he was. 
It is a significant fact that Jesus shrank from 
it. "If it be possible, let this cup pass from 
me," but through it all he went, and ever since, 
the world has looked on and wondered. So 
must his disciples do. Right here is the solu- 
tion of many church failures. We seem to be 
seeking after the spectacular. As the Roman- 
ist is impressed by the pomp of ceremony, and 
the august presence of high church dignitaries 
in elegant apparel: Protestantism seeks to 
allure by the number of its denominational ad- 
herents and the splendor of its great sue- 



86 The PeRsecuTioN 

cesses. But a little reflection will show that 
this is not the plan of the great founder of 
the church. It may seem hard, but the only- 
way out from our sins is through Gethse- 
mine's way. Had Cortes in Mexico and Pi- 
zarro in Peru come fully to this idea in their 
conquests, they would have left us a different 
Mexico and a different Peru from what we 
have to-day. I told them. Yea, verily! we 
must all pass through this way. I was not 
there to chide them. We all hold back from 
such experiences. But come they must into 
every Christian life; and fortunate will it be 
for those who endure unto the end; for only 
such shall sing the song of the redeemed in 
the glory world. It may be hard to go to the 
Cross, but go we must. The world must be 
crucified; our evil dispositions must be con- 
quered; we must learn self-abasement. How 
futile then for man to exalt himself; how fool- 
ish to place our wills above the will of God. 
Then, face all duty; let integrity, manhood, 
honor, justice, fair deal, lead us as they will; 
we must pay the price, even to our own dis- 
comfiture. We must be kind to one another, 
we must be our brother's protector. To do 



o^ STE:PHeN Strong 87 

less than this, is to sadly fail. It is to place 
ourselves where the wrath of God is out 
against us. I then referred to the fact that 
this was my closing service in these words. 
In conclusion, it will be proper that I should 
make a short personal reference to my work 
among you. I may say that in all my pastor- 
ates I have tried to be a faithful minister of 
the gospel. Out of the entire number of these 
pastorates, two have stood out conspicuous as 
giving evidence of a great amount of hard 
work, combined with skill to bring things to 
pass. The one which presents my greatest 
achievement, is Thrift. Next to this, is Min- 
eral Springs. The Mineral Springs Church 
had years before my pastorate been erected at 
a cost of twenty thousand dollars. By bad 
management the subscriptions had many of 
them failed, so that at the time I went to them 
they were five thousand dollars in debt, and 
were completely discouraged and were about 
to sell their church for a boarding house. The 
people had absolutely refused to give any more 
to the cause. I took up the work, raised the 
five thousand dollars, cleared the church from 
|11 obligation, and opened the way for their 



88 The Persecution 

prosperity. I found I had done a work for 
an appreciative people. Understand me, I did 
not give that money. The people did. And 
very many assisted me in getting it. But they 
recognized my part in the matter. They kept 
my salary up, were full of expressions of ap- 
preciation and kindness, and over and above 
all ordinary offerings made me a donation of 
four hundred dollars. Without my knowl- 
edge, I found that they had prepared a peti- 
tion for my continuance with them. They 
declared in this paper that they would be will- 
ing to become a Mission Church if I could be 
continued with them for at least one year. 
They would be better pleased if I might re- 
main with them my lifetime. This was signed 
by four hundred people. Nearly all the mem- 
bers of my church and congregation, members 
of other churches, all of the ministers of the 
town, and many citizens. Other kindnesses, 
which I need not now mention, were shown 
me, making it evident that they were possessed 
of the spirit of gratitude." "Ten years ago I 
came to Thrift, found the church in a very 
discouraged and discouraging condition. Dur- 
ing these years I have baptized nearly one 



01^ Ste:phen Strong 891 

hundred; have received many into the church 
by letter ; have been among the people sympa- 
thizing with them in all their troubles and re- 
joicing in their successes. Nearly all this time 
I have been laying plans and doing work that 
we might have our church enlarged and 
beautified. At last we have succeeded. The 
work has been done at a cost of six thousand 
dollars. Four thousand dollars, or about that, 
has been raised by my own effort outside the 
church. It has been a hard struggle on my 
part, but all the way along I have been willing 
to make the sacrifice, for I was looking to its 
'completion and the full rounding out of so 
noble an enterprise." I then quoted Via 
Dolorosa, by Alice Pettus Dillard (a street in 
Jerusalem along which Christ is said to have 
passed bearing his Cross, is still called Via 
Dolorosa or Sorrowful Way) : 

Dear Christ, because the way 

That thou didst walk on earth was sorrowful 

And they that seek it find, oft marked with 

blood 
Thy footprints; shall I say: 



90 The Pejrs^cution 

Give me a sunnier path, more flowers to cull, 
And all things which this world calleth good! 

Nay, tender, patient friend, 

Though "sorrowful that way" — take thou my 

hand 
And lead me in it, though I cannot see 
Through blinding tears, its end; 
It matters not, I know 'tis to the Land 
Where longing hearts meet face to face with 

Thee! 

'Twill often lead I know, 

Away from earth, to many a lonely height, 

From which the world will seek to tempt me 

by 
The many flowers that grow 
Beside its pathways, and which, to the sight, 
Are fair and gay, but ah so quickly die. 

And as I journey on 

I know my feet will one day reach the gate 

Of some sad Garden of Gethsemine, 

Where I must kneel alone 

In darkness, as thou didst, and pray that fate 

Will take away some ''cup" she pours for me. 



01^ Stkph^n Strong 91 

And if, oh ! Perfect One 

Thou sayest these trembHng lips thn^ cup must 

drink, 
Quiet their sobbing, 
Till they say with thee: 
^'Father, thy will be done," 
And when I feel thee near, I will not shrink, 
But to its dregs will drink it silently. 

The last hymn was sung, the benediction 
pronounced, the large congregation arose and 
seemed to stand as if under some spell, not 
seeming to comprehend that the service was 
closed. As if with an impulse from God, 
Judge Church came forward to the pulpit, ex- 
tended his hand to me, saying these words, "I 
want to thank you for that splendid sermon. 
And I want to express to you my sympathy, 
and I want you to know that you have it." 
Another Elder of the First Church who sat 
with the Judge then extended his hand saying, 
"Me, too!" Both of them spoke loud enough 
so that anyone in any part of the house could 
hear them and many did hear them. During 
the preaching and the profound attention, 
.when I referred to my success at Mineral 



92 The: Perse:cuTion 

Springs, Mrs. Littleman was heard to say, 
"Better speak of his failures." In the sense 
in which she desired to be understood there 
were no failures. True, Hke all ministers it is 
not for me to boast. I must acknowledge 
frailties. But if we were to understand that 
any such acknowledgment is to become the 
occasion to overthrow the life work of God's 
ministers, then humility can never have place 
again in the House of God. I mention her 
criticism because she is a prominent instructor 
of the children in the Sunday School. What 
shall we expect of the rising generation if they 
catch the spirit of such a teacher? You will 
notice, Dear Mother, that I did not definitely 
refer to my persecutions or my persecutors. I 
had noted down these words that followed for 
the Sunday evening sermon, but on reflection 
left them out. "As a reward for this, that is, 
my great work and great success in Thrift, 
the pittance which has been called a salary 
has been purposely withheld. I am now being 
paid with QUIT MONEY. I am asked to 
resign, and the state of things in the church 
has become utterly unbearable to myself and 
mine." While I did not use these words, they 



o^ S'rE:PH]eN Strong 93 

were absolutely true. And in view of all I 
had done, showed without a peradventure, that 
we were in the midst of a heartless, unappre- 
ciative people, who did not have the honor that 
was common among thieves, to say nothing of 
my right to Christian sympathy and love. The 
saloon keepers of the town sent word up to 
the church, "We would not have used Mr. 
Strong like that if he had been one of our 
number." One hotel keeper approached me 
and I remarked that what hurt me was, I sup- 
posed I was among friends. He replied, "The 
more of such friends you have, the worse off 
you are," and he is correct. Now, no one who 
knows me would for a moment charge me with 
catering to the liquor influence. These men 
had more than once felt my lance, during the 
years I had been here, in the advocacy of tem- 
perance. I mention it to show how so-called 
temperance workers will seemingly work on in 
the cause and wonder why they do not make 
more rapid progress in the work of reform, 
when in reality, in their public work they have 
forfeited the respect of all men. If men are 
to be reformers, they must conduct themselves 
30 as to gain the confidence of those who need 



94 Th^ Pdrse^cution 

reforming. Sinners will not be saved by the 
work of those who have publicly condemned 
themselves. Yet, this was the position of the 
Calvary Church in Thrift at this time. Truly, 
they had a hard task on hand, but it is amaz- 
ing how ready they seemed to be to take up 
their impossible work. For two weeks there 
was no service in the church, I was on my 
^^VACATION." But when the first of Sep- 
tember came, they came with my salary, and I 
must receive it, as humiliating as it might be, 
on the condition that I quit. Of course, I 
took the money, for I had earned it many fold. 
I could not see how such a people could take 
one step in the holy work of God. What can 
such men and women do to bring the world 
to God? How can such a pulpit committee 
make a call for a new pastor? They would 
have paid the highest compliment to the cause 
of Christ by closing their doors. What they 
do under such conditions is simply loading for 
the plunge of doom. But to my surprise, a 
former pastor was announced to preach and he 
occupied the pulpit for the first two Sabbaths. 
Of course I felt indignant that he should do 
§0, But he came to me and asked an inter- 



01^ Ste;phe;n Strong 95 

view. I told him at the outset that I was in- 
formed that when he was at the dedication re- 
ceiving honors at my hands in preaching the 
principal sermon of the occasion, he was not 
loyal to me. And then I told him what he 
said, but he declared he did not say it, and he 
WAS loyal to me. I then told him the story 
of my abuse. And he, in his characteristic 
way, said, ''There had not been a meaner thing 
done in hell than their usage of me." He also 
said, his being here was accidental and had he 
known it all he would not have preached for 
them. He also said that at this time he had 
been given opportunity to make himself a 
pusilanymous nothing, but he would not. He 
went from the place very much depressed. 
But his presence was used to brace the church 
in its iniquity. Another circumstance con- 
tributed to strengthen them in their unchris- 
tian work. It was the custom of Grace 
Church, First Church and Calvary Church to 
hold union services from time to time. Imme- 
diately, Rev. Mr. Cool and Rev. Mr. Pru- 
dence sought their fraternity and the union 
services continued. GRACE CHURCH, 
FIRST CHURCH, AND CALVARY 



gS The: Pe:rse;cution 

CHURCH BUILT A RELIGIOUS 
BRIDGE, WHICH CALVARY CHURCH 
COULD NOT HAVE DONE ALONE. I 
had resigned, but yet must remain in the com- 
munity; my home was here. I undertook to 
explain it to Mr. Prudence, but in the midst 
of it, he said, '*I suspect I ought not to know 
what you are telHng me." I told him it was 
just what he ought to know. But he went out 
as though he did not know, and continued the 
fraternity. What the other churches should 
have done, was to say to Calvary Church, we 
have had pleasant relations with Mr. Strong 
and you. Now there is a difficulty between 
you ; settle that difficulty and then we will hold 
union meetings. Whatever the other minis- 
ters meant, they became the right arm of this 
designing church. One other circumstance 
contributed to strengthen the church to give 
their full power to my ministerial destruction. 
During all the years of my pastorate in Thrift, 
Mr. Wealthy had given to my support. For 
several years he had given one dollar a week. 
But after my pastorate he immediately 
doubled his subscription for my successor, 
making it one hundred dollars a year. This 



OF Stephen Strong 97. 

he did in the face of his full knowledge of the 
case, when he had said many times, ''It is all 
dead wrong," and against my efforts to have 
him take steps to bring the church to repent- 
ance. I told him as things were the church 
could not run. *'0, yes," he said, ''they will 
clean up and go on." I told him that it would 
take a big washing machine to clean up Dea- 
con Willrule. The strange thing about it is, 
he gave his money and influence before they 
cleaned up. There is the rub. They should 
be made to acknowledge their wrong. He 
could have held them to that and they would 
have done it. But so soon as the one hundred 
dollars was at their disposal and he was in his 
accustomed place at church, they cared very 
little whether he endorsed their proceedings or 
not. But his position was that he was not a 
member of the church, and consequently had 
no voice in the matter. Right here, I want to 
speak a word of public caution. The man who 
has money and looks on and sees a wrong, and 
Continues his contributions, excusing himself 
on the ground that he does not belong to the 
church, is capable of doing an infinite amount 
of harm; and frequently does it This Mr. 



98 Tun Pe:rse:cution 

Wealthy did, when he knew, if the work went 
on in that way, it was over my prostrate form. 
To say nothing of his professed friendship 
and cordiaHty to me, how could he do that 
with any expectation of good being done until 
they had made their acknowledgments to me, 
to God and the community. The church need 
not wonder long why worldly men hold back 
from the church when they are eye-witnesses 
of such outlandish conduct. Add to all these 
influences, that an indifferent public are care- 
less about these things, on the ground that 
what is everybody's business is nobody's busi- 
ness, the schemers and the evil plotters come 
pretty near having their own way, which we 
are convinced is not the right way. This con- 
duct of Mr. Wealthy has been censured by 
many who were witnesses of the proceedings. 
Mr. Webster, not a member of the church, 
who had become a liberal supporter of the 
church up to that time, declared unhesitatingly 
that Mr. Wealthy had done very wrong. Mr. 
Webster absolutely refused to have anything 
more to do with the church, declaring its con- 
duct to be deficient in every principle of honor, 
justice and truth. In a few weeks the church 



^c^^umtimmatm 



o]^ Stkphen Strong 99 

had called Rev. Mr. Sharer to become their 
pastor. In him they found a man of their own 
type. He seconded their doings, not recogniz- 
ing me or my friends as having any rights 
that they were bound to respect. But notwith- 
standing the foregoing conditions, the other 
churches and ministers assembled at the Cal- 
vary Church and gave Mr. Sharer a reception, 
and he was publicly announced as the repre- 
sentative of proceedings which were anything 
but brotherly. The winter months were com- 
ing. All recognized, and no wonder, that 
there was great need of a religious revival. 
The three churches and ministers met in con- 
sultation and they unanimously agreed to call 
an Evangelist for union revival services. 
Now, mark a strange circumstance. It was 
important who this Evangelist was to be. But 
at the conclusion of their deliberations, it was 
decided to take Mr. Sharer's recommendation 
and call Mr. Crandall. Think for a moment, 
wanted! a man to bring men to God! let the 
man who is sanctioning the conduct of an un- 
holy church select that man because he knows 
him. But so it was. The Evangelist was en- 
gaged, the time was set, the meetings were 



loo The Pe:rsecution 

to be held in the First Church. The prepara- 
tion was elaborate. A large amount of money 
was raised, probably more than one thousand 
dollars, and there were preparatory house-to- 
house prayer meetings and the preaching was 
in reference to a preparation for such a series 
of meetings. As the time approached, I be- 
came uneasy and ere we knew it, Margaret 
and myself were living the awful experiences 
all over again. I determined to leave the town 
during the meetings. I sent word to a friend 
that I would like to come and spend two or 
three weeks with him. I knew that I would 
be welcome there, but his wife sent word that 
he was just recovering from the grippe and 
could I wait a few weeks. I made other ef- 
forts to get away, but could not. Just about 
the time the meetings were to commence, Rev. 
Mr. Prudence met me and wanted to know if I 
was not going to attend the meetings. I told 
him, "No! I could not in conscience do so, as 
the Calvary Church was in it and I had not a 
particle of confidence in its leaders." A few 
days after the meetings commenced. Rev. Mr. 
Prudence came to my house and asked me to 
go down to the Bible readings in the afternoon. 



OF Stephen Strong loi 

as I would be unobserved. I told him that I 
had preached in this town ten years and did 
not propose to go into any side door. When 
I came, it would be with full ministerial recog- 
nition. The meetings took on much public in- 
terest. One night Deacon Willrule made a 
motion that two mottoes be placed across the 
principal streets, in plain view of the railroad 
cars: "THRIFT FOR CHRIST." It was 
done. The Evangelist assailed the First 
Church for dancing and card playing, saloon 
keepers and other offenders received his re- 
buke, but not a word was said about the Cal- 
vary Church wrong. When Mr. Prudence 
called on me, I called his attention to the fact 
that the Evangelist and his helper were gratui- 
tously entertained at Deacon Willrule's. I 
asked him if he supposed that Deacon Will- 
rule did that for Christ's sake. I told him No, 
but it was a plan to cover his wickedness and 
plow me under. How was it that the Evan- 
gelist knew how to assail Thrift evils and yet 
did not discover Calvary's great wrong, which 
was the theme of universal talk. Still I con- 
cluded to abide in silence and let the work 
shape as it would. I spent nearly all my time 



102 The PE:RS:ecuTioN 

at home and was curious to know what shape 
I would be in when the meetings were over. 
The time seemed long, but my nerve held out, 
and I expected to find myself somewhere as 
the days rolled on. Evangelist Crandall was 
quite a general. He would stop when his ser- 
mon was half preached and say this will be 
finished in the street, and then leading the way 
out would take his place on a conspicuous 
street corner and the congregation would fol- 
low him. He would institute prayer meetings 
at all times of the day and night. The saloons 
were out of business. Public interest was in- 
tense. All this I could observe, but I knew 
there was an Achan in the camp. The Evan- 
gelist found this himself. When he went 
about urging sinners to be saved, old and 
young would say, have the Calvary Church do 
justice to Mr. Strong, then we will believe in 
your religion, but until then we are better 
than your professed Christians. And they 
were right. Neither he nor Mr. Sharer had 
called on me. I determined to let it work its 
way and keep quiet. But my plans were frus- 
trated. On the Friday night before the meet- 
ings closed, about nine o'clock, as I was in 



o^ Sti:phe:n Strong 103 

my study alone, my door bell rang. A young 
man with five or six young ladies stood at the 
door. He was spokesman. "We have called 
to ask you and Mrs. Strong to come down to 
the First Church to a nine fifteen prayer meet- 
ing.'' He said, ''The Lord is working won- 
derfully and everybody was praying, CHRIS- 
TIAN PEOPLE," with a peculiar inflection 
on the Christian to show me that I was a fail- 
ure in my duty. I told him that Mrs. Strong 
was not at home and I did not feel well enough 
to come. ''It's too bad," he said, "Pray for 
us." I said "Yes," and one of the young la- 
dies said "Yes," and they went their way. 
Your persecuted son, 

Stephisn Strong. 



I04 The Perse:cution 



SEVENTH LETTER. 

My De:ar, Dear Mother: — 

You will readily see how I must have felt. 
To be approached by inexperienced people, 
with the assumption o£ my failure in duty, 
when I was conscious that I was standing on 
the solid rock of integrity and truth. Yet I 
knew this was a fresh attack upon me, and 
unless something was done, their religious 
scheme had carried and I was plowed under. 
I was home alone that night. Immediately I 
felt a sense of oppression ; my heart beat heav- 
ily; there was no sleep for me that night. All 
the detested scenes of the miserable affair were 
going through my mind. I determined to 
write to the young man and state the matter 
plainly, although I knew he was perfectly 
familiar with the circumstances without any 
letter. At the time the abuse first began he 
was not here, he came to the town as a member 
of another church, but his professed interest 



01^ Ste:phe:n Strong 105 

in me and other reasons, held him to Calvary 
Church. He was in our home frequently dur- 
ing our great sorrow and knew all about it. 
But never once expressed sympathy with us. 
Humanity would call for pity if a cat were in 
torture, but this model young man in the exer- 
cise of his Christian virtue could look compla- 
cently upon our suffering without one word of 
sorrow or regret for the terrible ordeal 
through which we were passing. I could see 
that this new call for prayer would be inter- 
preted against me before the public. I was 
not mistaken in it. For it was noised about 
that such a call had been made upon me ac- 
companied by some such words as the follow- 
ing, "These are not Calvary meetings, if Mr. 
Strong was a Christian he would be in the 
meetings." I therefore wrote the letter which 
follows, taking the precaution to make it an 
open letter and publish it if necessary. 

AN OPEJN LETTEJR. 

Thrift, March 18, 1905. 
D^AR Brothe:r PityIv^ss : — 

Last night you called on me, inviting me to 



io6 Th^ Pi:rsi:cution 

the meetings with Mrs. Strong. I told you 
Mrs. Strong was away and I did not feel well 
enough to go. Both of which were true. But 
it does not say all. Mrs. Strong and myself 
have been injured and harmed beyond expres- 
sion by the course the Calvary Church took 
with us last summer and the months preced- 
ing. Every one knows, and God knows, that 
I had planned everything that was good for 
the Calvary Church and Thrift, and brought 
things to pass until marvels were wrought in 
our midst. It was due me to pass me on with 
honor and praise, instead of which I received 
criticism and humiliation. As they have now 
left me, my ministerial influence is almost 
paralyzed. And all this without any fault of 
mine or Mrs. Strong. Now all this has been 
done in the sight of this community and it has 
been so flagrant that the profound sympathy 
of the people is with us. Placing it short, the 
Calvary Church has failed to appreciate our 
hard work and unparalleled success, have with- 
held the little amount that Mrs. Strong asks 
for her services, four hundred and seventy- 
eight dollars and twenty-five cents, and which 
in all honor should be paid with interest, have 



o:? Ste:phe:n Strong 107 

robbed me of my ministerial standing and 
what seems strange to us, does not seem to 
'care how bad we feel. The conduct of the 
church has made us prisoners in our own 
house. Under all these circumstances, it does 
not meet the case for a self-appointed commit- 
tee to come to my door and invite me. I do 
not question the sincerity of the committee. 
I do not know who they were, with the excep- 
tion of yourself. I take the position that Paul 
did in Acts 16:35 ^^ 4^- Speaking for Mrs. 
Strong and myself, they have beaten us openly 
and uncondemned, being ardent Christian 
workers, and cast us into prison. And so my 
full answer to your committee is this, AFTER 
ALL THIS does the church think to thrust us 
out privily? Nay, verily, but let them come 
themselves and fetch us out. That is, let them 
pay Mrs. Strong. Let them give me credit 
for the great work I have done in this midst. 
Let them speak words in such form and place 
as will restore me my ministerial standing. 
Again, I have never been ofificially asked, as a 
minister, to join in the meetings." 

Stephen Strong. 



io8 The: P^lRSKcuTioisr 

It was my intention to publish this in the 
village papers. But on reflection I thought it 
might be interpreted as my attempt to destroy 
the good the meetings had done and I con- 
cluded to send it to the Evangelist and let him 
use it for the good of the work. To do this 
would call for a letter of explanation to him. 
The following is the letter : 

Thrii^T, March 19, 1905. 
De:ar Brothe:r CrandaIvL: — 

On Friday evening I was visited by a com- 
mittee and invited to come to a nine o'clock 
prayer meeting. I could not go. I have given 
my reason to them, a copy of which I enclose 
to you. All of which is true and more, too. 
The new Calvary Church is the product of my 
effort and the sudden strength which they 
seem to show is the result of my careful lead- 
ership. My standing in the town is unques- 
tioned. It could not be otherwise but that my 
wife and myself should feel crushed under the 
usage we have received. I did not believe it 
was possible for human beings to pass through 
what we have for the past two years. There 
are not two other people in the town that 
would have lived through it and kept their rea- 



01^ Ste:phe:n Strong 109 

son. The community knows what we have 
done ; they know how we have been used. My 
letter to the committee indicates to you what 
way is now open to rectify, as far as possible, 
the great wrong that has been done me and 
mine. No one wants your motto across the 
street to prove true more than I do. ''THRIFT 
FOR CHRIST.^' If it does, I shall have 
justice; the world will know that I stand high 
and above every attack that has been made 
upon me. The base lie of my poor preaching 
will be rectified and the world will look on and 
say that there is power enough in God to 
bring wickedness in the church to an account, 
and as far as possible rectify so evident a 
wrong as has been done me. Then the spirit 
of the Lord will have free course in this town 
and be glorified. You now have the power to, 
make the master stroke in your Thrift cam-i 
paign. 

Your afflicted and injured Brother, in thei 
Garden with Christ, 

Stejphsn Strong. 

Pastor of the Calvary Church for the pasti 
ten years. 

P. S. I shall be glad to have a call from 



no The Persecution 

you and talk the matter over. I shall retain a 
copy of this and reserve the right to make it 
public if I choose. S. S. 

These two letters were placed in the Evan- 
gelist's hands on Monday evening. Tuesday 
noon he had not called on me. I went to Mr. 
Fairman's; he assured me that the Evangelist 
would call and then gave me the experience of 
the hour before. Mr. Crandall and Mr. Sharer 
had called at his home, ostensibly to procure a 
subscription for the Y. M. C. A. Building 
which was to be the great climax of the meet- 
ings. They were not successful. Mrs. Fair- 
man told them nothing would be done by them 
until Mrs. Strong was paid. She also said, "I 
suppose you want to pray for my husband, 
but don't have Deacon Slyman pray for him, 
for he has no confidence in his religion." She 
also said, "I suppose you want him to go to 
the meetings, but he says he will not go there 
and see that hypocrite. Deacon Willrule, strut- 
ting about." Mr. Sharer said he could not get 
acquainted with Mr. Fairman. She said, "I 
will tell you why, Mr. Fairman does not wish 
to see you. You have not come to this town 
right. You ought to be the foremost in having 



wm 



o^ Stephen Strong hi' 

this affair of Mr. Strong settled. You would 
have had no new church without him. And 
Mr. Fairman has the pubHc good at heart, so 
that if you are to come here to work, he wants 
you to come with some prospect of success. 
As you are now doing, you cannot succeed." 
They left the house, met Mr. Fairman in the 
street. Mr. Fairman said to the Evangelist, 
"I beg and entreat of you that you do not 
leave this town until you have straightened 
this matter of Mr. Strong. You can do it if 
you choose, and unless you do, your coming to 
this town will be a curse. You need not tell 
me what Mr. Strong has done. I was Presi- 
dent of the Board of Trustees of the church 
all the time he was here; was on the building 
committee. Many times he talked with me 
about the enlargement. I let him talk, but I 
had no expectation of his doing it, there was 
no money in sight for the work. BUT HE 
DID DO IT and raised every dollar for it, 
and then, after he had done this impossible 
thing, the very first step the church took was 
to lock him out doors with no cause. I tell 
you, this community won't stand it. Tell the 
church to proceed at once and get Mrs. 



112 Thk Pe:rsecuYion 

Strong's money as being the least thing they 
can do after they have done the abominable 
work they have. But if they don't do it, there 
will be a donation for Mr. Strong and there 
will be more money than that in it and I know 
it." After his telling me this, I returned home 
awaiting the coming of the Evangelist. About 
five P. M. he came, said he had prayed all 
night over it. He appreciated my situation 
and would make his best endeavor to right the 
wrong. About seven-thirty P. M., Rev. Mr. 
Prudence and a Grace Church layman called 
at my house and asked if Mrs. Strong and 
myself would go to Mr. Fairman's to a prayer 
meeting; we went. On reaching there, we 
found a company of about twenty joining 
hands and singing. We joined the circle. 
Deacon Willrule stepped to me, extending his 
hand, saying, "I regret these differences and 
wish they might be rectified." I assured him 
that no one wanted them rectified more than 
I. Then Mrs. Willrule shook hands and 
wanted to know if everything was going to 
be just as it was. I told her, that would de- 
pend, it had all been useless and cruel. Then 
Mrs. Strong hesitating to take Mr. Willrule's 



01^ Stephen Strong 113 

hand was asked if she could not trust and 
then said, "YES, IF JUSTICE IS DONE 
MR. STRONG." She shook hands with both, 
using these words. Then we prayed. Then 
Mr. Prudence turned to me and said, "Now, 
Mr. and Mrs. Willrule have shaken hands 
with you and Mrs. Strong, can't you shake 
hands with them?" I said, "It will not cost 
me anything to shake hands with them, I am 
not mad, I am crushed ; I am the victim. But 
I can't see any particular good in shaking 
hands with them, as there were others than 
them in it and there has been no time for a 
church meeting." Mr. Willrule then said, "I 
have not been appointed by the church to do 
this, but I know I voice the sentiment of the 
church when I say they want this settled." 
Just then a voice was heard, "And we know 
if the church will take up Mrs. Strong's claim, 
the community will help them get it." I then 
said, "If this is a call from the church for a 
settlement, of course I shake hands." Mrs. 
Strong shook hands and the meeting closed, 
having committed the church to do justice by 
Mr. Strong and that Mrs. Strong should be 
paid. It was then proposed that we all walk 



114 The; Pe:rsecuTion' 

down to the church, some suggesting that Mr. 
Willrule walk with me and Mrs. Willrule with 
Mrs. Strong. I said, ''No, I will walk with 
my wife." We reached the church. It was 
proposed again to walk up the jisle with Mr. 
Willrule, but I walked with my wife. As I 
told her, we had walked the road side by side 
through the dire affair and we would continue 
to the end. As we entered the church in pro- 
cession, a sister led us down the aisle sing- 
ing, "Blest Be the Tie That Binds." It was 
a large congregation of six or seven hundred. 
No sooner did they see Mrs. Strong and my- 
self followed by Mr. and Mrs. Willrule and 
others, than the whole congregation arose and 
every handkerchief was waving; we had a true 
Chautauqua salute, lasting a long time. All 
were in tears. The enthusiasm was intense, 
wave after wave of sympathy passed through 
our hearts as we walked to the platform. As 
I reached the steps. Judge Church extended 
his hand and said, ''Come up here, you dear 
man, you're all right. I thought if we prayed 
long enough, we would plow down in there 
somewhere." Then he said the same to Mrs. 
Strong and we were enthusiasticaly received 



o-^ Stephen Strong 115 

as we faced the audience in the midst of the 
Chautauqua salute which they seemed in no 
hurry to discontinue. It was a scene long to 
be remembered. We prayed. The Evangelist 
came to me as I sat down and said, "This is the 
intensest day of my ministry." He then told 
me how he had sent the party up to Mr. Fair- 
man's. He said, in the fore part of the even- 
ing he went through the audience four times 
speaking with this one and that one, saying, 
"Go back into the prayer room and go to pray- 
ing,'' until he had about twenty. The most of 
these came to the meeting at Mr. Fairman's. 
So confident was Mr. Crandall that the matter 
was settled, that he placed me on the program 
the next day as one of the speakers, which 
appointment I kept. On Wednesday as we left 
the church. Judge Church took us by the arm, 
saying, "I have had occasion to say a good 
many words for you and I am going to say 
more." He said, "Last night Mr. Crandall 
came into the meeting at the church with the 
twenty and said, "I want you to take hold of 
Mr. Strong's trouble and pray until it is set- 
tled just as God wants it." They did pray. 
Then Deacon Willrule arose and said, "No 



ii6 Thi: Psrse:cution 

one regretted this matter more than he, but it 
could not be helped." This was more than 
the Judge could stand and he arose, saying, 
"I happen to know something about this mat- 
ter myself. I gave three hundred dollars 
toward that enterprise when no one would 
have said that I ought to have given over fifty 
dollars, if I gave anything. I am a First 
Church member and support my own church. 
But I gave the above amount to help Mr. 
Strong, and this town is full of just such men. 
I tell you it is the crudest thing I ever heard 
of and I wish the brick would fall down on 
you." Then Deacon Willrule said, he was 
willing to do anything. The Evangelist re- 
plied, "Then take your wife and go up to Mr. 
Fairman's." That is how that meeting was 
brought about. At the church as the meeting 
closed, we had an ovation; probably shaking 
hands with more than three hundred. Even 
the Calvary people came with expressions of 
greeting and we hoped God had taken it into 
His own hands. Mrs. Strong and myself 
agreed on the way home, if the church ful- 
filled on their part, we would attend church 
there, for, if they desired us to forgive them 



o^ Sti;phe:n Strong 117 

the wrong, we would forgive them. We 
wanted very much to have it so. But in this 
we were to be disappointed. I spoke to Mr. 
Sharer for the first time in the First Church. 
Once after that he shook hands with me, but 
he did not say, "We shall expect you in church 
next Sunday and shall be glad to have you 
with us." Of course we were waiting for the 
church to make good Deacon Willrule's pledge. 
But we did not hear from them. On inquiry 
I learned that the Evangelist had not placed 
the letters in Mr. Willrule's hands, although 
there was nothing in them that he did not 
know. However, as they did not come to me, 
I went to his house, called on his wife, read 
the letters to her and she said, "There was 
nothing in them but that the church ought to 
do.'' She said she would tell Mr. Willrule 
and have the matter promptly attended to. As 
I heard nothing for a day or two, I concluded 
to write a letter to Mr. Willrule, which I will 
now give. 

Thrift, March 25, 1905. 

DfiACON WlIvIvRULE. 

De:ar Brothe:r: — 
It seems that Brother Crandall did not show 



ii8 Ths PeRSfiCuTioK- 

you the letter I wrote to him. I supposed he 
had. I will enclose it to you just as I sent it 
to him. Mrs. Strong and I supposed you had 
seen them when we were at Mr. Fairman's 
and when we went down to the church. God 
— this community — my own reputation — the 
Calvary Church — demand that this matter 
should not at this time be covered up. I have 
thought that the church could meet and pass 
resolutions that would set the matter just as 
near right as it can now be made. It is time 
strong words of appreciation were spoken for 
me as to my success and my ability to preach. 
So don't be afraid to use the adjectives. I 
will indicate to you something of what the 
resolutions may be. 

Whereas, a grievous wrong was done our 
late pastor, Rev. Stephen Strong, Ph.D., in 
the manner in which he was led to resign from 
his pastorate; 

And whereas, it has caused great sorrow to 
Dr. and Mrs. Strong ; the community ; and the 
church itself; 

And whereas, we desire to remove all ob- 
stacles from the progress of God's cause; 

Therefore be it resolved, 



o:^ Stephen Strong 1119 

1st — That we are under lasting obligations 
to him for obtaining for us our beautiful 
church by his unceasing and successful efforts. 

2nd — That we do hereby express our confi- 
dence in him as a Christian gentleman, and an 
able preacher of the word and do most cor- 
dially endorse and recommend him to any 
church to which he may be called as a man 
who brings things to pass. 

3rd — That the trustees give a note of five 
hundred dollars to pay Mrs. Strong for her 
able service in playing the organ and develop- 
ing the music for the past nine years and 
more. 

4th — That a copy of these resolutions be 
published in the Thrift papers, the City Her- 
ald and the Metropolitan Official Paper. 

Ste:v^n Strong. 

This focused the matter, and placed it where 
It was within easy reach of us all. If there 
was any fault in my proposition at all, it was 
that it did not hold the evil doers to come for- 
ward and publicly confess their great wrong 
personally, each one speaking for himself. 
There was nothing asked they were not per- 
fectly able to do. So, of course, I confidently 



I20 The Persecution 

expected a prompt answer; and as they had 
succeeded in carrying their point and had put 
me out of the pastorate; reason — decency — 
hope of future success — fairness and justice to 
me — everything said they will not fail here, so 
that I can announce to man and God that I 
stand high and above every attack that has 
been made upon me. But I was to be disap- 
pointed again. Days which seemed years went 
by, still no kindly call. How fitting it would 
have been if the committee, which had so 
meanly come to my house and asked me to re- 
sign, had now come and expressed their sor- 
row for their doings, with a solemn promise 
that they would never be guilty of so cruel a 
thing again. But nothing of the kind was 
done, and I was to have another chapter of 
evil opened upon me, as you will see in the fol- 
lowing letter. 

Your sorrowful son, 

Stephen Strong. 



o:^ Stephen Strong 121 



EIGHTH LETTER. 

Dkar Mother: — 

In order to make the case perfectly clear to 
you, so that you can fully understand, I will 
copy in full what I subsequently published in 
the village paper. It may seem to anticipate 
the story, but I think no one can misunder- 
stand. The following is the newspaper publi- 
cation : 

DR. STRONG'S CASE. 



STATEMENT CONCERNING HIS REIvATIONS 

WITH THE THRIFT CAIyVARY 

CHURCH. 

It is due the citizens of this town as well as 
myself that my attitude towards the Calvary 
Church of this place be made public. Myself 
and wife have suffered great injustice at their 
hands. For the great work I have done in 



122 The; Persecutiok 

this place they owed me honor and praise — • 
they gave me criticism and humihation. We 
have endured this form of injustice as best 
we could and God has kept us unto this day. 
At the revival meetings I intimated to them 
what way was open to make the matter just as 
near right as it could then be made. They 
were to speak words in such form and place 
as would restore me my ministerial standing 
— ^they were to pay Mrs. Strong for her ser- 
vices for the past 9 years and more. To the 
end of such a reconciliation a prayer meeting 
was called at the home of Mr. Fairman about 
March 20th, 1905. In the midst of prayer, 
pledges were made, in behalf of the Calvary 
church that "Justice was to be done Mr. 
Strong and Mrs. Strong was to be paid for 
her services.'* After which Mrs. Strong 
and myself were conducted to the First 
Church, where we received such an enthusiastic 
reception from the congregation, that we shall 
never cease to be thankful for it to our dying 
day. We then were looking for the church to 
make good the pledges made until April 14, 
when we received a communication from the 
church asking us to arbitrate the matter, I 



o^ Sti^phen Strong 123 

will now give the correspondence which passed 
between us and the church in order that the 
pubHc may judge of our fairness from first to 
last. 

Thrii^T, May 24, 1905. 
To the Thrift Calvary Church: — 

Replying to yours of May 19 would say. It 
is not my purpose at this time to review the 
conduct of the church towards Mrs. Strong 
and myself during the summer of 1904, and 
the months preceding. About March 20th, 
1905, under the solemn influence of prayer, at 
the home of Mr. Fairman a solemn pledge 
was made in the presence of witnesses, That 
"Justice was to be done to Mr. Strong" and 
Mrs. Strong was to be paid for her services. 
This was sealed by mutual hand-shaking and 
at the suggestion of the meeting Mrs. Strong 
and I "trusted" the church for the fulfillment. 
We and the community had every reason to 
believe that this was final and would certainly 
be carried out. We were continuously looking 
for its fulfillment until April 14, 1905, when 
we received a communication from the church 
asking us to arbitrate — we to choose one mem- 
ber — the church to choose one — and the two 



124 Thk P£:rs^cuTion 

to choose the third. To which we made tfie 
following reply. 'We are in receipt of your 
communication of April 14th, 1905, suggest- 
ing that the conduct of the church towards us 
be submitted to a committee of arbitration. 
In reply thereto would say, that, while we feel 
that the church should voluntarily and with- 
out arbitration, do all in its power to right the 
great wrong that has been done us, by pass- 
ing resolutions of commendation and appre- 
ciation, ind by paying Mrs. Strong for her 
services as organist, yet in order that we may 
not seem to be unfair and unwilling to do 
what is right we consent to the suggestion 
made and will name the member of the com- 
mittee to be chosen by us as soon as you have 
named yours, and we would respectfully re- 
quest that the proceedings be brought to as 
speedy a determination as possible. I imme- 
diately went to Hanover, called upon Rev. 
John Hubbard, D.D., submitting to him your 
paper, and asking him in the light of condi- 
tions imposed, if he was qualified to act on the 
commission. He said he had neither formed 
nor expressed a biased opinion, and in his 
characteristic, conscientious way said he con- 



o^ St^phdn Strong 125 

sidered himself in no sense disqualified to act 
on the committee. On May 2nd I received a 
communication from the church notifying me 
that the church had chosen Rev. Mr. Sprague, 
D.D., of the Hanover First Church as their 
member. I immediately communicated with 
Dr. Hubbard and asked him to serve on the 
committee and received the reply that he ac- 
cepted the position. After which communica- 
tion I notified the church that I had appointed 
Dr. Hubbard as our member of the committee. 
On May 5th we received the following from 
the church: "Yours of the 4th at hand. In 
reply would say, inasmuch as Dr. Hubbard is 
your pastor, thereby making him an interested 
party which is contrary to the agreement the 
church refuses to accept him as one of the 
committee." I immediately went to Hanover 
to consult my counsel in the case and found 
him to be in New York to remain several days. 
I called on Dr. Hubbard and submitted to him 
your objections, and in view of the fact that 
he assured me that his position in regard to 
the issues was that of a neutral, and since 
further I had joined his church merely to 
maintain a proper denominational standing — I 



126 ThK Pl^RSKCUTlON 

considered your objection technical and asked 
him to remain on the committee. I then 
awaited my counsel's return from New York, 
which was Saturday, May 20th, at which time 
I purposed to see him and fully arrange the 
matter. On May 19th, I received the follow- 
ing from the church : ''We are just informed 
by Dr. Sprague that Dr. Hubbard and himself 
have agreed upon a third party and have ap- 
pointed a time and place for the commission 
to meet. In this connection desire to call your 
attention to the first clause of your signed 
agreement that three disinterested persons be 
chosen, etc. Dr. Hubbard, is according to 
our information, your pastor, and therefore 
cannot be termed a disinterested person. We 
notified you May 5th of our refusal to accept 
him solely on this ground. Unless you can 
name a disinterested person and so notify us 
on or before May 25th, we shall withdraw our 
offer of arbitration, inform Dr. Sprague of 
our action and declare ourselves on account of 
your failure to comply with your written 
agreement free from any and all responsibility 
in the entire matter." In reply to which I 
now declare, I have complied with my written 



01^ Stephen Strong 127 

agreement in both letter and spirit, and in Dr. 
Hubbard have appointed a man second to 
none in the State quahfied to act on the case, 
and the church would have made no mistake 
in appointing him their arbitrator, as he be- 
longs to that high order of Christian gentle- 
men which would render it impossible for him 
to be bought, influenced or coerced to render 
a verdict contrary to the facts submitted. I 
therefore deny your charge that I have in any 
sense chosen an interested party and lay it 
back upon you that you have transcended the 
terms of your agreement when you object to 
Dr. Hubbard. In this refusal you reflect on 
Dr. Hubbard's integrity and should I consent 
to it, I should be a party to the affront. I 
therefore call your attention to the fact that 
I reluctantly consented to the arbitration in 
order that I might not seem unfair. Because 
I felt and knew it was not a case for arbitra- 
tion, but simply for the church to fulfill a sol- 
emn promise made in its behalf and do what 
they had agreed to do. In conclusion we 
would say : 

1st. The proposition to arbitrate was sub- 
mitted by the church with certain definite 



128 The: Pe:rse:cution 

specifications and was accepted and officially 
agreed to by both parties. 

2nd. It is a simple principle alike in law 
and morals that an agreement once made can- 
not be either cancelled, amended in any par- 
ticular, or limited by either party thereto with- 
out the consent of the other party. You will 
see therefore that your declaration, to the ef- 
fect, that, on the conditions named by you, the 
agreement to arbitrate will be void after May 
25th is wholly unwarranted and is without 
force and effect. 

3rd. In view therefore of the facts and cir- 
cumstances, and in view of the fact that we are 
the aggrieved parties in this distressing affair, 
we do not insist upon the arbitration, but sim- 
ply leave you without compulsion, save the 
compulsion of a Christian spirit and Christian 
morality to carry out and make good the plain 
and definite promises and assurances so sol- 
emnly made to us in the prayer meting at Mr. 
Fairman's home on March last. We ask noth- 
ing more, we are entitled to expect nothing 
less from the members of the church of Jesus 
Christ. Ste:phe:n Strong, 

Margaret Strong. 



01^ Stephen Strong 129 

To this we received the following com- 
munication : 

Thrift, N. Y., May 26, 1905. 
Rev. and Mrs. Stephen Strong, 
City, 

Dear Brother and Sister: — ^Your letter 
of the 24th inst. was duly received and care- 
fully noted. 

Replying will say that as we fail to agree 
with you on the points stated and as you have 
annulled our mutual agreement of April 14th, 
1905, by failing or refusing to appoint a dis- 
interested party to be your representative in 
accordance with its terms, we consider said 
agreement to be cancelled by your failure and 
therefore no longer binding on us, and will so 
notify Dr. Sprague. 

Regretting that you have allowed this op- 
portunity to pass by, we beg to remain, 

Yours sincerely. 

On behalf of the Calvary Church, 

John Litti^eman, Clerk. 

It must be evident to all that Mrs. Strong 
and I did not annul the arbitration agree- 
ment. We simply waived our right of arbi- 
tration provided by the agreement. But this 



130 The Pers£:cution 

in no conceivable sense released the churcK 
from the obligation to keep literally and fully 
the solemn promise made. If it were true that 
our waive cancelled the agreement their prom- 
ise still remains in full force. 

It is a question of fair dealing in the church 
of God. Does God appoint his church to tear 
down those who give their fullest power to 
build it up? The letter of C. H. Parmalee in 
last week's paper gives the gist of the matter. 
As surely as God is God he must withhold his 
blessing from such a people. How can the 
church expect the favor and blessing of God 
unless they deal justly and love mercy? 

As to Mrs. Strong's bill, Mrs. Strong did 
not present her bill in the spirit of revenge. 
She felt after we had received criticism and 
humiliation instead of words of merited praise 
and recommendation, thus destroying our 
prospects for another pastorate we could not 
afford to give all her service. Under the cir- 
cumstances she felt justified. 

Ste:phe:n Strong. 

Dear Mother, I am sure from the above 
paper you will gather the full meaning of the 
position. The fact that the church wanted to 



01^ Ste:phkn Strong 131 

arbitrate was an admision on their part that 
there was an issue, and comes the nearest to 
any acknowledgment of wrong on their part 
of anything they ever did. A layman from 
the same denomination of a neighboring town 
said to me, "Do they have to arbitrate to be 
decent?" It is strange that they should be so 
obstinate and unwilling to make amends. So 
far as worldly and financial interests were 
concerned, not one of them had risked a penny, 
their own business was moving on, bread was 
coming regularly to their homes, but, as for 
me, I was cut off from employment, being 
morally assured that no other church would 
want me when such a cloud was left to hang 
over my ministerial work. Even a child can 
see that they placed themselves among the list 
of persecutors without the least possible ad- 
vantage to themselves. True, they may say, 
and I am told they do say, that they were 
driven to it by the impossibility of running the 
church under my leadership. But I know, 
and they know, and God knows that when 
they say it they utter a falsehood. But if that 
were true, why not come around now and hdp 
me out? Pity itself would say, it has gone far 



132 The; PiiRsecuTioN 

enough, take them off the rack. But no! it 
would spoil their enjoyment; these Neros 
would miss the pleasures of the spectacular 
crucifixion. In the account of the intercom- 
munication, I referred to the article of Rev. 
Mr. Parmalee of Jamesville published in the 
paper of the week before. I will now give 
the article: 

DISCREDITABI.E; PROC:eDURE. 

In the light of Bible teaching, it is not a mat- 
ter of wonder that many a church, claiming to 
represent the principles and spirit of Chris- 
tianity, should frequently be in a low spiritual 
condition, for the leading members have pur- 
sued ways which have provoked the Lord to 
anger against them. And in such instances 
the innocent members suffer with the guilty 
ones. It was always so. I now have in mind 
a church. For ten years, recently closed, it 
was served by a pastor of talent, a genuine 
Christian, and who in various w*ays worked 
hard to promote the spiritual life and material 
welfare of the church. His wife was of large 
assistance to him in church work during all of 



OF Stephen Strong 133 

these )rears. She was organist of the church 
and did a vast deal in making the praise ser- 
vice a powerful aid to the public worship. 
Both pastor and wife have been most highly 
regarded by the entire community throughout 
the pastorate. A year ago very extensive im- 
provements on the church edifice were com- 
pleted at a cost of $6,000 and nearly all of the 
money was obtained by the solicitations of the 
pastor, and it required many months of assid- 
uous work to secure the means. During the 
whole pastorate the salary was only $500 per 
year, and the pastor had to hire his house. A 
few months after the edifice was remodeled 
and greatly improved, the pastor was asked 
by a committee, appointed by the church, to 
resign, and he very soon did so. Recently a 
successor was obtained, at a salary much 
larger than the former pastor received. The 
church claimed to be unable to pay their pas- 
tor any more than they were giving him. 
They were contented to let him and his de- 
voted wife economize and deny themselves all 
of these years. The whole thing is a very 
discreditable procedure, and I am confident 
that God will withhold His favor from that 



134 ^HB PUM«CUTI0N 

church until they shall repent, and it may be 
years before they will do so. As a matter of 
justice to the pastor and wife they should have 
been permitted to remain in their position a 
year or two longer. Churches should deal 
fairly with their best servants. 

C. H. Parmai^ee. 
•t 

This article places the whole subject in its 
true light and is worthy of great consideration 
by every church in the world. I know what 
it cost to bring things to the point of success 
it had attained. The reward I received for it 
was the usage that could receive no apology 
unless I was an utter failure in brain, heart, 
and moral standing. To construe it that the 
church was to go on to prosperity over my 
ruin without any amends being made, it would 
be necessary for me to think it out in this way. 
In the day of my consecration to God, he said 
to me, go to Thrift, when you get there you 
will find a discouraged band doing little or 
nothing and accomplishing less, with no stand- 
ing in the community, go and build it up, bap- 
tize over one hundred, beautify the church 
edifice until it is the most attractive church in 



OF Stephe:n Strong 135 

the town, get the good opinion of the com- 
munity, have your wife develop the music un- 
til it makes the blood tingle to hear it, and 
when you have done all this, I will have the 
very people for whom you have accomplished 
it— MY PEOPLE— break both your hearts — 
persecute you in public and in private and will 
have them staunchly maintain their position, 
while they are looking for the time to come 
when our voices will be hushed and we shall 
be where no word of ours can disturb their 
hypocritical services. And as the Sabbaths 
come, Margaret and I must look on and see 
them supported by the affiliations of Grace 
Church and First Church, and pose as the 
disciples of Jesus Christ. Or, as it is sup- 
posed that every Christian should attend some 
church, we are to join in with the company and 
worship a God who gives his approval to such 
conduct. You see. Dear Mother, it is utterly 
impossible for me to accept any such position. 
I readily confess, if I must, if I am compelled 
to do so, and must be persuaded that such is 
God's will, then I am an infidel — before I shall 
worship such a God as that, I will join the 
ranks of the open infidels. One or two things 



136 The PgRsecuTioN 

is true. Either God blesses, or he condemns 
it. The God of the Bible, the God I worship, 
can do no other thing than condemn it. I am, 
therefore, ruled to be upon the side of God 
and with His support can look on serenely 
and see the storms gathering that are to 
sweep away those who are thus incorrigible. 
This is what I would avert. Better that the 
guilty ones should come to repentance, than 
that they should pass on and be punished. 
Right here comes the problem. I am told that 
a similar state of things is quite common 
throughout the land. If that be so, is it 
strange that spiritual weakness is the charac- 
teristic element in all attempts to make inroads 
upon the people of the world. The outside 
looks on and says, that is religion — justice is 
not to be found in the church — I am better 
than professed Christians. Now what is the 
remedy for all this ? The day is gone by when 
we are to say, cover it up and cover it in, and 
let Zion appear to be fair in strength, because 
already the world knows these things too well. 
If we expect God's blessing and the church is to 
become what we expect it to be, there is but 
one way open; and that is, repentance, contri- 



o^ Sti:phe:n Strong 137 

tion, confession, amends to the injured ones, 
abandonment of such unholy practises, in fact, 
let human hands let go and let God's hands 
lead on henceforth and forever. Not to do 
this is to make the church an organization for 
making infidels rather than Christians. And 
mark this! unless it is done, we are near the 
time of the greatest apostasy the world has 
ever known. I am not now discussing this on 
the principle of any scriptural interpretation 
of the nearness or remoteness of the judgment 
day; but simply to show the situation, and 
hope that SEEING, men will avoid the fear- 
ful consequence that must otherwise come 
upon them. But the treatment I am receiving 
and the apparent churchly trend would not 
indicate that we are very near any reform. 
Only a few weeks after receiving their ulti- 
matum, I was called to a church as a candi- 
date. While there, my wife forwarded to me 
a "white cap*' clipping from a Sunday news- 
paper. The article, when applied to those who 
deserved it, was well enough. It simply said, 
that when men had been rightly thrust out of 
churches for incompetency and failure there 
ought to be a law to compel them to leave the 



138 Th^ PE:RSi:CUTlON 

town, as they were a constant nuisance and 
were worthy of no consideration. The differ- 
ence between my case and the one intended 
was, that I was not that failure in any sense. 
The ones to leave town are the persecutors 
and not the persecuted. Think of such a 
marked article coming to my home when I 
was absent trying to get a call. Of course, I 
felt uneasy, for I knew Margaret was home 
bearing this new insult without my presence. 
After preaching two Sabbaths I was asked if 
I was in sympathy with the Thrift Church, I 
answered "No, and the church would have it 
to answer for." Up to that time I was confi- 
dent I would receive a call, but I came home 
and heard no more from them. Now sup- 
pose that T:>hen I was asked that question, I 
could have taken the resolutions I wanted 
signed, and handed to the committee. I would 
have had the call; removed from tlie town 
and they would have been freed from their 
nuisance, but that would not do ; I must needs 
be ground between these millstones: First, 
they would not recommend me to another 
church, thus enabling me to get away, and yet, 
I am a bad man because without an income I 



01^ Stkphe:n Strong 139 

know of no better thing to do than to live in 
my own house. If such is God's method of 
ridding the church of ministers, better place 
muskets in the members' hands and bid them 
shoot them down. 

Your son, 

Ste:phe;n Strong. 



140 The: Persecution 



NINTH LETTER. 

Dear Mother: — 

I still have a desire to let you know how I 
have been getting along from the summer of 
1905 until now. I am still living in my home 
and from present indications shall continue to 
do so. It would be impossible to describe to 
you the heartaches we have suffered and do 
suffer. On account of the loss of confidence 
in the church, we immediately severed our re- 
lations with it and placed our names in an- 
other church out of town. Of course, it would 
not be worship to attend any service such a 
church might hold. We cannot well attend the 
sister churches in town, for very frequently 
they unite with them in union service. And 
then, we are uneasy in any church because we 
are conscious that we are observed and pitied. 
Pity is good, no one should despise it. But 
after all, it is a poor substitute for earned 
honor. One thing that has cut very deep into 



oi^ Ste:phe:n Strong 141 

our emotion is the sound of the ringing of the 
church bell — it does not call us to worship. 
The question is, can there be any true worship 
here when all parties know that there is a 
justice due me that is not rendered. It was a 
long time before any of the churches asked 
me to preach in their pulpits. In 1906 Mr. 
Prudence asked me to preach for him on the 
Sabbath of his resignation. I did so, morning 
and evening. Grace Church have not asked 
me to preach once. This seems hard, as up to 
the time of my betrayal by my church, I was 
acceptable to all of them. Such a condition of 
things comes pretty near being what we used 
to call "Gag Law." It places a man where he 
can get no opportunity to speak. But you 
might say, get a hall and preach on your own 
account. That is impracticable in this town. 
Religious interest is low. The churches have 
small congregations compared with what they 
might have and worldly men who look on and 
call for fair play are not ready to fall down 
before the Cross, as my preaching would most 
certainly call for. And besides such unright- 
eous conduct has disgusted them with any kind 
of church effort. Individuals by the score 



142 Thk Pe:rse:cution 

come to me and express their indignation that 
I should be used as I have. But it is mysteri- 
ously strange to me that up to the present hour, 
either from pen or lips, with the exception of 
Mr. Parmalee's article, I have not received a 
public acknowledgment of the work I have 
done. Individual members of the churches are 
full of commendation. I often wonder why 
some one does not say it out in print. Why 
does not some denominational minister who 
knows all about my work here put an article 
in the Religious Weekly, at least telling who I 
am and what I have done, if he does not offer 
criticism on the conduct of the church. It 
therefore seems that I am to work it out alone 
and it is on this account, Dear Mother, that I 
am writing these letters to you. Since my be- 
trayal, I have had a great many weddings and 
frequently attend funerals. But very seldom 
am I called to preach in any pulpit. When I 
am asked to preach, I always accept if possible. 
Some of the old members of my former 
church cling to me. A sister who was sick a 
long time frequently said she wanted me to 
preach her funeral sermon. She wanted it in 
the church. The husband of the deceased, a 



01^ Stephen Strong 143 

member of the church, came to engage me. I 
said, certainly I would, but I asked him if an- 
other church would not do as well. He said, 
''No." He then proceeded to ask Deacon Will- 
rule if we could have the church. Deacon 
Willrule said, the trustees had voted that I 
should not be allowed to come into the church 
for any service. But the persistence of the 
brother procured the church. When we 
reached the church, it was uncomfortably cold, 
the snow was not properly removed from the 
entrance, the choir had refused to sing if I 
preached and the poor brother was under the 
necessity of paying an organist and singers 
from the other churches. Their scheme now 
seems to be, to hold their services, of any kind, 
and then come out with a great report of its 
success, whether it is true or false. They tried 
this plan with the preacher they called to suc- 
ceed me. He joined heartily with them in all 
their wickedness. Were you to judge of their 
success by the published account of their do- 
ings, you would suppose that everything was 
on the wave of prosperity. Soon it was quietly 
told that the congregations were very small. 
But the great doctor was constantly reported 



144 Th^ Pi:rse:cution 

by the press as doing wonderfully. At length, 
his congregations run out and he resigned, 
ostensibly to take another position. Whereas 
the necessity was on him. But after such a 
signal failure, an article appeared in the Metro- 
politan Paper giving him credit for all the 
advance made, and also giving him credit for 
results that truth does not substantiate. Had 
they said one-fiftieth part of the amount of 
good things about me, they did about him, and 
had to lie to say it; had they said all they 
could have said about me and told the truth 
which would have far exceeded the things they 
said about him, I could have easily obtained 
another pulpit. In fact, if they had left off 
their undeserved criticism and given me a civil 
commendation, I would never have had a 
heartache. Margaret would have been spared 
from the torturing rack and if it were best that 
we should go from Thrift, we would now have 
oeen happily employed on some other field 
suited to our talent. And we could have gone 
on into eternity without the awful experience 
that comes from this peril among false breth- 
ren. It may be asked, what would I have 
them do? I would have them sign the reso- 



OF Stephen Strong 145 

lutions I presented to Deacon Willrule for con- 
sideration; and then make them good in every 
particular, and by such an act solemnly prom- 
ise to conduct themselves along the line of de- 
cency. Or, if they will not do this, I would 
have them retire from church activity and 
leave their places to be occupied by men and 
women upon whom the blessing of God can 
rest. I say this on the principle that public 
wrong should always be frowned down. If a 
minister is detected in a crime and publicly ex- 
posed, he is unfrocked, and everybody says it 
should be so. Even so when a church is guilty 
of flagrant wrong and are exposed, they 
should be "unfrocked." There is one way 
open to all, and that is confession and repent- 
ance. 

While these things are going on unques- 
tioned, it does not seem so strange that the 
Church has lost its corrective power, that more 
people do not attend church, and that young 
men will not enter the ministry. 

Sincerely your son, 

Stephen Strong. 

riNis. 



DEC 1 9 1^03 



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